Genesis 49:9-10 (NIV)

⁹ You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

Principle Judah speaks of lordship to Yeshua (Jesus) the Jewish Messiah who will return to earth and reign over the whole earth in times to come.

Matthew 24:30 (NIV)

³⁰ "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.

At the coming of the Messiah, all nations of the earth will mourn because at that time their lifestyles of rebellion and self-will and living for themselves will come to an end.

Rebellion is human independence which seeks to live a lifestyle that is independent from God and independent from God's plan and in doing so the rebellious seek to live their own lives on earth.

Isaiah 53:6 (NASB)

⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Those who live their own independent lifestyles are living in sin because they are like a sheep gone astray from the shepherd who is Jesus the Lord. Jesus died to pay the penalty for the sinfulness of mankind which is displayed in their independence and self-will and rebellion against God's will.

What rebellious humans do not want to do freely by submission to the Lord (before the Messiah comes) they will then do under compulsion because the Messiah will rule the earth with a rod of iron!

Psalm 2:8-9 (NASB)

⁸ 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

⁹ 'You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'"

The stubborn self-will of humans rebelling against God's will be shattered in that day like a rod of iron smashing pottery into pieces! All human rebellion against the lordship of Christ and his rule on earth will be shattered!

Isaiah 1:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land;

²⁰ but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Those humans who resist and rebel against God's will, will be destroyed but those who are willing and obedient will eat the best of the land.

Proverbs 29:1 (NIV)

¹ A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed--without remedy.

To be stiff-necked means to willfully persist in doing wrong and resisting God’s direct rebuke and resisting God’s call for repentance. A person who remains stiff-necked is one who refuses to repent of their evil ways. Such a person will be destroyed without remedy.

The Lord's Dominion Over all Humanity

Daniel 7:13-14 (NASB)

¹³ "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.

¹⁴ "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

All peoples and nations and humans of every language on earth will be forced to serve the Messiah in that day. He will have an everlasting dominion which will never be destroyed.

Matthew 16:27 (NASB)

²⁷ "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.

The Messiah will repay every human according to their deeds with the wicked being punished with eternal damnation and the righteous being rewarded with eternal life.

Matthew 24:3 (NASB)

³ As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"

Jesus spoke clearly with his disciples about his coming and the end of the age which will commence with the return of Jesus the Messiah.

Matthew 24:37-39 (NASB)

³⁷ "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

³⁸ "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

³⁹ and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Jesus said that his coming will be like the days of Noah with people living in haphazard and careless manner without a thought for coming judgment. The inhabitants of earth behaved the same as usual right until the day Noah entered the ark and they were all swept away. The return of the Son of Man will be the same way with people living in careless and independent manner right up until his appearing.

Romans 8:3 (NASB)

³ For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

Jesus is called the Son of Man because he was born as a human and took on a mortal flesh body just as other humans. God sent his Son Jesus to defeat sin as a human and do for humans what they could not do for themselves.

John 1:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus become flesh and dwelt among humans and walked as a man on earth even though he was divine and came from God.

Staying Alert for the Lord's Return

Matthew 24:42-44 (NASB)

⁴² "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

⁴³ "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

⁴⁴ "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

No human knows when the day of the return of the Lord will take place but believers must stay vigilant and be ready because the day of the Lord will be like the coming of a thief in the night.

Revelation 2:27 (NIV)

²⁷ 'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery'-- just as I have received authority from my Father.

The Lord will rule over the nations with an iron scepter (which is unbreakable) depicting absolute power over the nations which will be like fragile pottery before his infinite power!

Matthew 24:40-42 (NIV)

⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.

⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

⁴² "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

These scriptures speak of one being taken and another one left behind. This refers to two types of people on earth and these are those who are worthy to be taken to the Lord and those who are unworthy and will be left behind during the tribulation period. Believers are to keep in a constant state of readiness at all times and live lives of obedience to the Lord so that they will be counted worthy to escape all of these things that will soon take place on the earth.

Luke 21:36 (NIV)

³⁶ Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."

The believers are to watch and pray that they will be able to escape what is about to happen on the earth and to stand before the Son of Man.

Living in a State of Readiness

But preparation for that event is not something that can be done at the last minute. Those who are living lifestyles of continual debauchery cannot hope to repent at the last minute and still be saved.

Luke 21:36 (NKJV)

³⁶ Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

In order for a believer to be counted "worthy" to escape all of these things they must live a lifestyle of continual submission to the lordship of the Messiah in their daily lives.

Principle Judah and Lordship

Principle Judah speaks of lordship to the authority of the Messiah. This lordship is required of all mature believers as soon as they pass the infant stage of spiritual growth.

A believer must understand that spiritual growth is similar to the growth of a natural human baby. A newborn infant is nearly helpless and his parents provide everything for the child until the child can mature and is able to take care of himself. It is therefore normal to change the baby's diapers and bottle-feed them and carry them around everywhere. But something would be seriously wrong if such a child grows to be age 18, and still wants to be carried around and still uses diapers and still uses a bottle. It is time for them to grow up and sit at the table and eat like an adult and use the toilet and walk on their own two feet! In the same way, a believer cannot expect that they will remain a spiritual baby for decades without growing up spiritually and maturing. A time will come when the Lord requires more out of them than when they were a newly saved infant still wearing spiritual diapers!

Lordship involves obedience to the Lord and putting away childish behavior and selfishness.

Hebrews 12:5-6 (NIV)

⁵ And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

⁶ because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

A time will come when a new believer passes beyond being a baby Christian and at this point (when they are weaned from the breast) they will come under the rod correction of a father's discipline. Discipline is not child abuse but in fact it is true love to prepare that child for adult life by correcting their bad behavior while they are still young enough to be corrected. If they should grow old in their bad character then it will be hard for them ever to be corrected and they will probably go to the grave in that miserable condition.

In the same way the Lord brings every believer whom he loves under the rod of correction and they are disciplined by the Lord so that they can partake of God's holiness.

Hebrews 12:7-10 (NIV)

⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

⁸ If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

⁹ Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

If someone is not disciplined, they are an illegitimate son because a real son will undergo discipline and training so that they will become someone of value in adult life.

Proverbs 29:15 (NIV)

¹⁵ The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.

The rod of correction imparts wisdom to a child but if the same child is left to himself (as undisciplined) this will bring shame to his mother. This typically occurs when a mother shields a child from the father's good correction and even comforts the child after he has been whipped by the father. This has the effect of cancelling out the good correction provided by the father given to correct bad behavior in the child. Such a child will become a monster and this shame will be upon the mother who did not submit to her male authority in the home when her husband disciplined their son and so the son grew to be old in his bad character and unruly behavior. It will be a shame to the mother who cancelled out the good correction of the father by comforting a child in his bad behavior.

This same type of thing can happen with fake preachers who are not called into the Fivefold ministry but only intrude into the holy office as laymen intruders. These types only seek some sort of income or livelihood from the ministry but have no care for eternal things. Such people have a different motive than a real Fivefold Minister who wants people to mature spiritually and make it to heaven. Such intruders are only religious vultures that exist only to gobble up whatever they can get in the ministry but they have no care whatsoever about the spiritual condition of their people.

See the link "Religious Vultures" for more details.

It is the character and nature of religious vultures to only tell the people what they want to hear rather than speaking the truth in love. They do not want to offend the people because they look to them as supporters. Therefore, they only flatter them and tell them lies saying that if they only repeat a salvation-prayer then they are guaranteed to go to heaven regardless of their ungodly mode of lifestyle on earth! Nothing could be farther from the truth! Those who are true children of God will accept God's rebukes and corrections which are designed to call them to repentance and save them from hell.

2 Timothy 4:3 (NIV)

³ For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

But those who do not want to be corrected will forsake real Apostles and Prophets (who deliver God's rebuke and rod of correction) and they will instead seek out hireling (religious vultures) who have no care about their spiritual growth whatsoever. False religion is such that adherents pay the false preacher to tell them what they want to hear. Thus, they can live their lives as they see fit and the hireling receives their payments and so everyone is happy (until they die and face judgment)! Then the hireling false preacher and his entire congregation that followed him will all be in eternal hell and there will be no getting out! It is therefore a complete waste of time for people to attend a false religious church run by a hireling who only flatters them for their money. What good is it to pay someone to say "what you want to hear" rather than having real Apostles and Prophets expose and rebuke sin and deliver God's rod of correction?

1 Kings 22:6-7 (NIV)

⁶ So the king of Israel brought together the prophets--about four hundred men--and asked them, "Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?" "Go," they answered, "for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."

⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?"

Ahab the king of Israel hired 400-false prophets who all spoke positive things and told Ahab what he wanted to hear. But this is a big-piece of self-deception to pay someone to tell you what you want to hear rather than asking a real prophet for God's word. The godly King Jehoshaphat asked if there was not a real prophet of the Lord to inquire of (instead of these bunch of fake hireling false prophets who were looking to receive payment from King Ahab).

In the same way, when a congregation supports a false hireling pastor who only flatters them and tells them what they want to hear then it is no better than Ahab hiring some false prophets to speak lies and flattery to him! All of these involved in this deception will all end up in hell (including the false preacher and the congregation that pays him to tell them lies and flattery).

The real church is headed by Fivefold Ministry Gifts and run by real Apostles and Prophets who deliver God's rebuke and expose sin and call people to repentance. If those in the congregation do not want to be rebuked, they are like a spoiled child running to his mother if his father uses a rod of correction upon him for his bad behavior. But running to a false preacher to flatter them is not going to help them escape hell when they stand before the judgment throne. Again, it should be noted that the false preacher has no consideration for eternal things whatsoever. He only wants to create a livelihood for himself while he is alive without regard for his own eternal destiny or the eternal destiny of those who are foolish enough to follow him.

Therefore, the rebukes of real Apostles and Prophets are not child abuse but on the contrary, this is true masculine love that loves the people enough to speak the truth and give them opportunity to repent. If they do not repent, they will end up in hell!

Hebrews 13:17 (7KB)

¹⁷ Obey your spiritual leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account to God. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.

Believers are to submit to their spiritual leaders (including Apostles and Prophets) who watch over their souls. These Apostles and Prophets will have to give an account to God for those believers under their care. If these believers should fall away and perish eternally (because the Apostles and Prophets failed to correct and rebuke them) then their blood will be on their hands.

Ezekiel 3:18 (NIV)

¹⁸ When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

If a Fivefold Minister does not warn wayward believers of their sin and they fail to repent and perish in hell then God will hold that Fivefold Minister accountable for their loss. It is up to the Apostles and Prophets to deliver rebukes and chastisement of God's word to call people to repentance so that they still have a chance to repent before they die and go to hell.

Spiritual Building Program

God as a spiritual building program going on and it is headed by Apostles and Prophets who clean up believers and teach them and instruct them and get them ready to qualify for heaven!

1 Peter 2:5 (NIV)

⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Believers are like living stones and each of them are placed into God's holy temple on earth. God dwells within the believers and they carry God's presence as a temple of the Holy Spirit so they are all like "living stones" which are built up into a spiritual house corporately with all believers together on earth.

1 Corinthians 3:10-11 (NASB)

¹⁰ According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

¹¹ For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Apostle Paul was a wise master-builder who was building up the believers spiritually so that they would be prepared and ready to enter into paradise. These believers were all built upon the spiritual foundation who is Jesus Christ. This speaks of the fact that "lordship" is the foundation of God's spiritual temple on earth and Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone of this entire building project.

Ephesians 2:19-21 (NIV)

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,

²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of this spiritual building project and the foundation is built by the Apostles and Prophets. The Apostles lay the foundation of divine order and the Prophets lay the foundation of holiness and the fear of the Lord. Without the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets the believers will be like a house built upon the sand.

Matthew 7:26-27 (NIV)

²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

It is specifically the teaching ministry of the Apostles and Prophets that lay the foundation of revelation in the lives of believers for divine order, holiness, and the fear of the Lord. Without such revelation the believers will be like a house built without foundation (upon the sand). When the sand is washed away, they will fall and have complete destruction!

Matthew 7:24-25 (NIV)

²⁴ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

But those who are sincere and do not want to play games with self-deception will come to the Apostles and Prophets and receive real teaching that can save their souls from hell. They will have teaching of the Apostle to bring divine order into their lives and the teaching of the Prophet to bring holiness and fear of the Lord. These two ministry gifts are listed first and second place in importance because there are the first levels of foundation upon which the entire building project rests!

1 Corinthians 12:28 (NIV)

²⁸ And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, . . .

The ministry of Apostles and Prophets are listed as first and second in importance followed by the Teacher but often these men will have dual-gifts meaning that they are Apostle-Teachers and Prophet-Teachers so all three ministry gifts are present. It is the teaching ministry of Apostle/Teachers which lays a foundation of divine order in the lives of the believers. It is the teaching ministry of Prophet/Teachers that lays a foundation in the lives of the believers for holiness and fear of the Lord. Without these two layers of foundation no long-term believer will make it to heaven.

They cannot have lordship without a fear of the Lord and without holiness and these cannot be obtained without a foundation of divine order given by the Apostle underlying them!

1 Corinthians 3:9 (NASB)

⁹ For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Apostle Paul spoke of how the Fivefold Ministry were workers for the Lord (Master-Builders) and that the believers were God's building. He also compared the believers to being field because just as cultivation of the farmer can make crops grow so the labor of the Apostles and Prophets can cause spiritual fruit to manifest in the lives of believers who receive their Apostolic and Prophetic teaching.

Deuteronomy 8:5 (NIV)

⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

The Lord disciplines the believers just as a man disciplines his son. This discipline is largely conducted by the teaching of Apostles and Prophets who rebuke disorder and sin and bring holiness into the lives of the believers.

Lordship

Isaiah 53:6 (NIV)

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Lordship deals with submission to Jesus Christ as Lord over every area of their lives. This teaching is for those who are spiritually mature therefore it can be called meat-teaching for this reason because a baby (without teeth) would choke on it.

1 Corinthians 3:1-2 (NIV)

¹ Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ.

² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

The believers in Corinth were still infants in Christ and not spiritually mature so therefore Apostle Paul had to give them only the milk of edification because babies can only handle milk. A baby will choke on solid food (like meat) because they are without teeth cannot chew meat.

But there are some churches that only give the feminine preaching of exhortation and love and edification and this is all milk-teaching. A real Apostle and Prophet will give teaching that contains rebukes which are meat of God's word or solid food that is hard to chew. In the same way rebukes and death-threats to hell may be hard to chew but (like a good steak) they are something that can make the mature believer feel satisfied spiritually. A mature believer will be bored-to-death with the milk of exhortation for babies because they are no longer satisfied with milk-teaching but long for something more substantial spiritually.

Progressing from Babyhood to Being Sons

1 Peter 2:2-3 (NIV)

² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

When a person becomes a new believer, they are like a newborn infant. It is a sign of salvation that they should desire spiritual things and they are to crave the spiritual milk (edification) of God's word which causes them to grow up into their salvation. It is at this point when they are newly saved where they taste and see that the Lord is good. God fills their lives with comfort and love like a mother comforting a newborn infant. It is at this time that they can readily see miracles and answers to prayer as God sets about to show himself real to the new believer. It is for this reason that most people healed in a healing crusade or healing prayer-lines are mostly new believers or unbelievers whom God is showing himself real to.

But for those who have been saved for decades, they will not easily receive healing by laying-on of hands because that is a "bottle-fed" method of receiving healing used mostly for infant Christians. For the mature believer God requires more out of them and they will have to learn how to exercise their own faith for healing. In a healing-line therefore it will be mostly newly saved believers who get healed and it will be the mature believers who go back to their seats without receiving healing by the laying-on of hands method.

This brings up this subject that believers cannot expect to live as an infant all of their lives. Even with a natural baby it is normal to wear diapers or use a baby-bottle. But if they reach age 18 and they are still wearing diapers and using a bottle and want people to carry them around then something is seriously wrong with them! It is expected that they should grow up and mature and stand on their own two-feet!

The same is also true of spiritual growth because a newly saved believer is like an infant and God carries them and readily gives them answers to prayer and heals them easily by laying-on of hands and God shows himself real to them in numerous ways. This time of walking in God's glory and having God's presence and seeing manifest answers to prayers is called the time of the "First-Love" because it is here that a new believer experiences God and walks with God. It would be great to live in this glory-time forever which is like an infant who receives the undivided attention of his mother to meet his every need!

But as with all good things they must come to an end when a person matures and God requires more out of them. It is after a mother weans her child from the breast that he should be turned over to the father's masculine love which is expressed in discipline. The father knows that a child left undisciplined will end up a menace to all society! Therefore, a father begins to train a son with discipline after he is weaned and provides for him skills he will need to survive in real-life as an adult. It is a hard-cruel world out there and no one will give the boy anything for free so he will have to be prepared to take care of himself and stand on his own two feet as an adult!

The transition time from walking in God's comfort as an infant in Christ to progressing toward discipline can seem like a "shock" but in fact it is in the best interests of the child to have a father's discipline. In the same way, in the beginning a new believer receives the lavish love of God (like a mother) which is full of comfort and edification. But after they mature, they are then required to have the discipline only a father can give. This discipline is true love so that they will survive to enter heaven and finish their race upon earth.

God is both a mother (toward newborn believers) and a father (toward those who have had enough time to mature and grow up). Both the mother's love of edification for a new believer and a father's love of discipline for a mature son are both necessary for someone to become a normal adult believer.

Time of First Love

Revelation 2:4 (NASB)

⁴ 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

The glory time of a new believer walking with God and experiencing God's presence and manifest answers to prayers in tangible manner is called the time of the first love. It is expected however that the believer maintain this same first-love relationship with the Lord even after they mature to becoming adult believers. They are never to leave their first-love but always maintain their original fervor for the Lord just as they experienced as a new believer who was craving God's word and spiritual things and fellowship with God.

But there are some changes that take place during the move from the baby stage to the stage of being a son with God. They will have to learn not to be moved by feelings but go forward by faith even if they have no feelings at all. The good feelings were present in the infant stage but in the son-stage they have to walk by faith whether they feel God's presence or not! This is what is means to be a mature believer.

When they need physical healing as a mature believer, they will not be able to just go to a healing prayer-line to have hands laid upon them. Typically, they will not receive any healing by this method after they have passed into the son-stage. For the mature believer they will have to learn to exercise their own faith for healing and no longer depend on the bottle-fed method of someone else laying hands on them for healing.

Instead the mature believer will have to go to the word of God and memorize scriptures which speak of healing and meditate on them until faith rises in their hearts. Then they will have to fight the good fight of faith and stand in faith until they receive their healing (not being moved even if the symptoms do not instantly disappear). They may have to fight for some days or weeks or even months before they see the results but this is part of exercising faith and they are not to give up or be moved by circumstances or feelings but only be moved by what God's word has said.

This is part of being a mature son when they learn to believe the word of God even over temporal symptoms that attack their physical bodies. But these symptoms will have to go because God's word is real and natural things must change when a believer stands in faith for healing and will not be moved by feelings or by symptoms or by natural outward circumstances.

Discipline of the Lord

Another aspect of being a mature believer is that they can handle the discipline of the Lord and rebukes and correction. Oftentimes an Apostle or Prophet will deliver God's rebukes to an entire congregation of believers corporately but God will also give personal rebukes directly to a new believer. Sometimes these rebukes will be related to some pet-sin that they have allowed to remain for many years. Then one day God begins to deal with them to repent of that sin and forsake it. At this point a struggle can ensue because cutting off a pet-sin can be as painful as sawing off a natural limb like an arm or a leg!

Mark 9:43-48 (NASB)

⁴³ "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,

⁴⁴ [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]

⁴⁵ "If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell,

⁴⁶ [where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]

⁴⁷ "If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,

⁴⁸ where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.

These scriptures are not referring to cutting off physical parts of the body but rather cutting off pet-sins can be as difficult as trying to saw of natural limbs. It can be painful to cut off something that has been part of their life for decades. But if they do not forsake sin and cut it off completely, they can end up in hell if their life expires on earth before they have cut off their pet-sins.

Physical Afflictions from Unrepentant Sin

For example, if God wants a believer to stop looking at worldly media because they are being contaminated by the ways of the world then they might receive a physical affliction which shows up every time they disobey God's instructions to them! It can be interesting when these things afflict them only when they disobey God and look at worldly media but these symptoms cease whenever they obey God and do not look at unclean things! This happens because sin (disobedience) opens the door to the devil so that they can be afflicted when they disobey what they know God is telling them to do.

2 Corinthians 6:17-18 (NIV)

¹⁷ "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."

¹⁸ "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

The believer is called to come out of the world and all of his moral-defilement and touch nothing that is unclean or worldly! This can be movies or videos or worldly music or worldly news and anything that contains the defilement of the world. A mature believer will be held accountable by God for this and disobedience can open the door to the devil for a multitude of different types of afflictions. When they repent and stop such a sin then most often they will see the symptoms that afflict them also disappear.

This type of thing is an example of the discipline of the Lord. It will come to mature believers who repeatedly have failed to obey God in areas like separation and holiness or gossip and numerous others sins. When they start getting physical afflictions when they disobey God this is a example of God's rod of chastisement. Often it is just a case of opening the door to the adversary by sin and this sin allows the devil to afflict the mature believer.

But the infant believer can do all kinds of things without discipline because they are only a baby and God does not yet require much out of them. But when they mature, they will soon find themselves under the rod of God's discipline just like the rest of the mature believers also are when they disobey God and fail to repent of sin.

Some believers may grow spiritually a lot after their salvation and have many things cleaned up in their lives. But after some years of that God begins to deal with pet-idols in their lives. Here some believers vainly attempt to bargain with God and basically tell God that they will give up anything for the Lord (except this one thing). It is at this point that this "one-thing" of unrepentant sin becomes an idol to them. They begin to offer things to God like becoming ten-times more zealous in witnessing or doing good deeds or giving money to the church etc. But they cannot buy God off of pet sins. God is patient and often this behavior is tolerated for decades as God deals with them to repent and forsake some pet sin or idol in their lives.

See the link "Idols of the Heart" for more details.

Genesis 6:3 (7KB)

³ And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with [humans] forever, for they are indeed flesh; yet their days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

It seems that the longer that humans were allowed to live that they more they sin. So, God reduced human life-span so that they no longer could live for hundreds of years and limited them to only 120-years.

Psalm 90:10 (HCSB)

¹⁰ Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow; indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.

Later God even reduced human lifespan to only 70-80 years and this caused an urgency in humans to get right with God before their brief-temporal lives on earth expired. If they did not repent before their natural bodies died then their spirits would spend eternity in hell.

The scripture above says that the Spirit of God will not strive with humans forever. This means that there is a limit to how long God will deal with a believer over unrepentant sin in their lives (which is idolatry). God is patient and may deal with them for decades but a time will come when their grace will expire (if they harden their hearts in refusing to repent and continue playing games and continue to try and bargain with God to keep their pet-sin). When they cross the line of perdition this means they can no longer be renewed to repentance.

See the link "Christians In Hell" for more details.

God's Spirit will not strive with them forever! This means that there is a limit after which the Holy Spirit will stop convicting them of sin. At this point the Holy Spirit will abandon them and they will be sealed up for eternal damnation.

Hebrews 10:39 (NKJV)

³⁹ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

We are not to be one of those believers who once walked with God but they drew back and fell into perdition (being forsaken by God's Spirit) after decades of stubborn resistance and refusal to repent of some pet-sin.

Reason for God's Discipline

The reason God disciplines the mature believer is for their own good and this is part of God's masculine love because God does not want the believers to go to hell but rather repent and finish their race on earth.

See the link "Salvation's Race" for more details.

Hebrews 12:9-10 (NKJV)

⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

Human fathers are given the responsibility to discipline their children while they are still young enough to be corrected so that their bad behavior will not carry over into their adult lives. In the same way that children should submit to their natural father's discipline (knowing it is for their own good) believers should also submit to the heavenly Father's discipline and not harden their hearts by refusing to repent. God disciplines the mature believer for their own good (for their own profit) so that they as believers will partake of God's Holiness.

Hebrews 12:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Without holiness no believer will see the Lord so this is why God calls the believer to repent but will often allow them to be afflicted by the enemy if they stubbornly return to their disobedience. But some people will not give up a pet-sin even they are afflicted.

Stubborn Refusal to Repent

Revelation 9:20-21 (NIV)

²⁰ The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood--idols that cannot see or hear or walk.

²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

In the end times the wicked unbelievers left upon the earth will be hammered with numerous plagues and demonic torments that cause great pain and death. But even after being hit with numerous judgments the survivors of these plagues will still not repent of their wickedness and sin. They will continue to sin by worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood and idols. They will continue to murder and practice magic arts (witchcraft) and commit theft and engage in sexual immorality. This is an example of hard-heartedness as humans get hammered with terrible plagues that afflict them with great pain and death but even then these survivors will not repent!

This is an example of unbelievers being hard-hearted but the same thing can occur with believers as well. God may patiently deal with the believers for decades but if they just continue to fight for and defend some idol in their lives and refuse to repent, they could end up with demonic afflictions. Having various physical afflictions in their bodies is often a sign that they need to examine their hearts for sin. Oftentimes if they will repent of their sin, they would close the door to the devil and receive their healing. But if they continue with their unrepentant sin for decades then they are in danger of becoming hard-hearted like the wicked unrepentant unbelievers who curse God during the time of the great tribulation!

Revelation 16:9-11 (NIV)

⁹ They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony

¹¹ and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

These wicked unbelievers were so hard-hearted that even those survivors who were tormented with great pain in these plagues will not repent but even curse the God of heaven because of their great pains! Even in pain then they refuse to repent or humble themselves and so they seal themselves up for eternal damnation in the Lake of fire!

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.

¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

¹⁵ If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

All those not written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire.

Believers Written in the Book of Life

Exodus 32:31-33 (NIV)

³¹ So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold.

³² But now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written."

³³ The LORD replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.

Moses interceded with God not to destroy the sinful Israelites and even mentioned God's book (the book of life) which had the name of Moses recorded in it. God said that whoever sins against him will have their names blotted from this book.

Revelation 3:5-6 (NIV)

⁵ He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

If a believer's name is blotted out of the Book of Life then they will be cast into the lake of fire together with all of the unrepentant unbelievers and the devil and his angels. Those who are not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire and this includes believers whose names were once recorded when they were saved but were later blotted out after they stubbornly refused to repent (often time resisting the Holy Spirit's conviction for decades before they were finally abandoned).

God is patient and kind but there is an end to the grace-period and at this time they will be blotted from God's book and they are sealed up for eternal damnation and from this point forward they can no longer repent!

Do not Despise God's Rebuke and Correction

Proverbs 3:11-12 (NIV)

¹¹ My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke,

¹² because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

The believer is not to despise God's rebuke and correction and they should not shun God's discipline in their lives aimed at cleaning them up. This is masculine love and God is working to bring them to repentance so they will forsake sin. Without holiness they will not see God so if they do not repent, they will eventually go to hell (when they die on earth in this unrepentant condition).

The Lord disciplines those he loves just as a natural father disciplines his son and does what is right for him. Without discipline no believer is going to make it to heaven because they will fall out. Without holiness, they will not see God but end up in the lake of fire for all eternity together with all those who refuse to repent of sin.

Lordship Involves Discipline

Part of lordship is for the believer to obey Jesus as their Master and Lord. If he tells them to stop their pet-sins then they must obey their Lord and do what he says.

Luke 6:46 (NIV)

⁴⁶ "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?

There are many believers who call Jesus their Lord but at the same time they go on living for themselves and doing whatever they want and harboring unrepentant sin. They call him "Lord" but at the same time they do not do what he says! The word "Lord" means master and ruler and even slave-driver! If they make Jesus their "Lord" they are to obey him in everything he tells them to do and repent of every type of sin that God convicts them of.

To be convicted of sin is to know that they are wrong and admit that wrong to God and repent and turn and change their evil ways. Once the conviction of the Holy Spirit has completed its work (and the believer repents and changes) then the conviction ceases. It is condemnation that comes from the devil but it is conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit. The condemnation of the devil seeks to destroy the believer with guilt and make them ineffective but the conviction of the Holy Spirit stops after it completes the work of causing the believer to repent.

Isaiah 28:27-28 (NIV)

²⁷ Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a stick.

²⁸ Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it.

Caraway and cummin are delicate seeds and they are not threshed with a sledge nor do they roll a cartwheel over them. Also, in threshing grain it is ground to make flour for bread but they do not continue threshing it forever. The principle here is that God does not overpower the believer with discipline using more force than necessary. The threshing does not continue forever but only what is needed to remove the inedible chaff. In the same way, God will discipline the believer and teach them from the word of God and rebuke them and correct them. But if they persist, they can open the door to the adversary to afflict them. If they continue beyond without repentance then the affliction may increase and become worse. But as soon as the believer repents then the threshing of discipline can cease because it accomplished its purpose!

The unbelievers however in the time of the tribulation will not repent even when they are screaming in agony! They will only curse God instead of humbling themselves!

Believers must be careful that they do not obtain a hardened heart. A hardened heart comes when they play games with God. Some believers will shut off their minds and pretend not to hear God when the Holy Spirit is convicting them of sin. All these tricks are designed to protect an "idol" and this behavior only keeps these believers from repenting. Such believers are living in self-deception and if they do not repent then eventually it will result in them being blotted from God's book after the Holy Spirit departs from them and they cross the line of perdition.

Lordship is Following the Great Shepherd

The principle of lordship speaks of God's people following the Lord like natural sheep follows a shepherd. God is our shepherd and he leads the believers into the plan that he has for their lives.

John 10:27-29 (KJV)

²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

²⁸ And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

²⁹ My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

The believers are God's sheep and they can hear God's voice as he speaks to them through the Holy Spirit within them. They follow the good Shepherd Jesus as he leads them in the plan he has for their lives. No one can pluck them out of God's hand and they are eternally secure (as long as they do not jump out of God's hand by their own human freewill and their own choice to serve sin instead of God).

John 10:4 (NIV)

⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

The believers (sheep) are God's own sheep and they were purchased by the blood of Jesus who washed them from all unrighteousness. When a person becomes a believer, they become a sheep of God's sheepfold. They are to follow God and they can hear God's voice as he directs them in the pathway that he has for their lives.

God leading is also depicted by the Israelites following the cloud in the desert with Moses.

Numbers 9:15-23 (NIV)

¹⁵ On the day the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire.

¹⁶ That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire.

¹⁷ Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped.

¹⁸ At the LORD's command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp.

¹⁹ When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the LORD's order and did not set out.

²⁰ Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the LORD's command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out.

²¹ Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out.

²² Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out.

²³ At the LORD's command they encamped, and at the LORD's command they set out. They obeyed the LORD's order, in accordance with his command through Moses.

The cloud of God's presence would appear as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of white cloud of vapor during the daytime. Whenever the cloud of God's presence lifted then that is when they set out and when the cloud remained in one place then they would also remain where they were at.

The children of Israel had to follow the cloud no matter if it moved in the daytime or in the middle of the night. Sometimes the cloud would remain in one place for a few days or a month or a year or more. If the cloud of God's presence did not move then the children of Israel would remain in the camp. They only set out when the cloud of God's presence moved and this indicated that they were to follow it.

It was under the command of the Lord that they set out and at the Lord's command that they encamped.

Following the cloud speaks of following the Lord and this also implies lordship because the people did not have any say about when the cloud moved or when the cloud stayed in place. They had to be constantly be watchful to see if the cloud was moving or if it was staying in one place.

If the people were passive and did not follow the cloud when it moved then they would be left behind by themselves. If the people got impatient and did not wait for the cloud to move and went off and left on their own, they would become like a sheep gone astray. They could not get ahead of God or they would be on their own and they could not fall behind God either and be left behind as abandoned. In either case they would be like sheep without a shepherd if they did not remain with the Lord. They had to be careful to move when the cloud moved and remain in the camp when the cloud remained in one place.

The principle of lordship is also depicted by the Jewish Festival of Sukkot. This can also be called the Festival or Booths or often poorly named Feast of Tabernacles. Jewish culture is rich with spiritual symbolic meaning and the Festival of Sukkot is one example of this because it is a depiction of coming under the covering or lordship of Adonai (the Lord).

See the link "Sukkot and the Principle of Lordship" for more details.

Sheep Gone Astray

Isaiah 53:6 (NASB)

⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

When humans live their own independent lives and go their own way and use their human freewill to make their own decisions (apart from God) then this is rebellion. This human rebellion is a sin and those believers who are independent from God are like sheep gone astray. God placed their sin upon Jesus who paid for their sin by the sacrifice of himself on their behalf.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.

The believer has been bought with a price when the Lord Jesus sacrificed himself for their sins. Therefore, they are to glorify God by walking in holiness and using their body in holy manner as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Bond-slave for the Lord

Exodus 21:4-6 (NASB)

⁴ "If his master gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.

⁵ "But if the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,'

⁶ then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

A bond-slave is a man who willingly and freely chooses to become a slave for life and this is a picture of the believer who willingly uses is own human freewill to choose to serve Christ for life. This means that he is a slave and he no longer has any rights to do as he pleases anymore. As an unbeliever he was like an independent goat that does what it wants but as a believer he becomes like a sheep who follows the good shepherd in obedient manner.

Mark 14:35-36 (NIV)

³⁵ Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.

³⁶ "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

Jesus was totally obedient to the will of his heavenly Father and submitted his own will to the will of God. He knew what he was to suffer and it was not his will to do this but he said, "Not my will but your will be done."

In the same way, the believer is to submit their own human will to the will of God the father and no longer live their lives for themselves as they once had as former unbelievers. This is what lordship is all about to submit to the will of God for their own lives.

Jesus is the Lord and the Lion of Judah

Revelation 5:5 (NIV)

⁵ Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."

Jesus is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah so Principle Judah speaks of lordship and total submission to the will of Jesus as the Lord of each and every believer. Without lordship then a person simply is not a child of God and does not belong to the sheepfold of the good shepherd. If they reject lordship, they have rejected being a sheep of the Good Shepherd and have made themselves into a goat-type by their own human freewill. Goat-types are distinguished by their independence and self-will as people who do as they please on earth and live their own lives and make their own decisions without the Lord.

Matthew 25:31-33 (NIV)

³¹ "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.

³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

The sheep and the goat nations speak also of those who are sheep-types and goat-types. The sheep-types follow the good shepherd Jesus as their Lord without question knowing he has the best plan for their lives. The goat-types speak of independence and going their own way and doing whatever they want. Goat-types depict those who have not submitted their human freewill to the will of God but do their own thing. All independence is sin just like a sheep gone astray who no longer follows the good shepherd. A sheep gone astray is in great danger of being devoured by wolves because they are no longer under the protection of the shepherd.

In the same way a believer who lives an independent lifestyle is in great danger of being devoured by the adversary Satan.

1 Samuel 16:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.

King Saul once had the Holy Spirit upon him but he behaved in independent manner and lived like a goat-type and was rejected by God. So, the Holy Spirit departed from Saul and an evil-spirit came and tormented him. This is an example of a sheep gone astray which is open to be attacked by wolves. The adversary can attack and torment an unrepentant believer who had strayed away from the Lord and is living their own independent lifestyle.

God's Chain of Command

1 Corinthians 11:3 (NIV)

³ Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

In God's kingdom there is a divine chain-of-command with God being the head of Christ and Christ the head of the man and the man the head of the wife and the parents the head of their own children. The authority flows through channels of submission as Christ submitted to the heavenly Father and the head of the households submit to Christ and the wives submit to their husbands and children submit to parents. There is peace and order as long as there is submission within the divine chain-of command. But whenever there is independence and rebellion it will cause turmoil and strife.

One example of this is that of a wife who is required to submit to her husband. If such a believer wife should follow the ways of the world and female independence then she will rebel against her ordained male authority in the home. But when she rebels against her husband, she is rebelling against Christ who ordained this male authority over her and this will bring judgment upon her.

1 Timothy 2:11-15 (NIV)

¹¹ A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.

¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.

¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

¹⁴ And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

These scriptures speak of a woman learning from her husband in quietness and full submission (without answering back or teaching her man). It is not permitted that a woman should teach a man because it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner and women are prone to deception. If the believing women are submissive to their own male authority at home, they are in fact submitting to Christ who placed this male authority over them. They have a promise of being saved in childbearing if they are submissive wives. But some have not been submissive and lost their lives as a result.

Rachel Perished and was Buried in a Road Ditch

The story of Rachel depicts a person with secret idols because she stole the idols of her father Laban and secretly kept them and worshiped them without the knowledge of her husband Jacob.

Genesis 31:32 (NASB)

³² "The one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Laban pursued Jacob to retrieve his stolen idols but Jacob was unaware that his wife Rachel had stolen the idols of Laban.

Genesis 35:2-4 (NIV)

² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.

³ Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone."

⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.

When Jacob left Shechem he told his entire household and family clan to purify themselves and get rid of any idols because he was returning to Bethel to his place of consecration to God. So, they took all of the idols found among them (due to the contamination of living among the Canaanites of Shechem and their bad influence of idolatry) and they buried the idols under an oak at Shechem.

I believe however that Rachel never submitted to her husband Jacob and she never disposed of the idols (which she had stolen from Laban when they left Syria). She was still secretly keeping these idols and worshiping them. She apparently did not get rid them at Shechem but continued to worship her father's idols. This long-term unrepentant sin later resulted in Rachel having trouble in childbirth.

Genesis 35:16-20 (NIV)

¹⁶ Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.

¹⁷ And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son."

¹⁸ As she breathed her last--for she was dying--she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

²⁰ Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel's tomb.

Rachel was expecting and when they were near Bethlehem Rachel went into labor and she was having great difficulty in childbirth and she died giving birth to her last son Benjamin.

1 Timothy 2:11-15 (NIV)

¹¹ A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.

¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.

¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

¹⁴ And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Again, it should be noted that believing women will be saved through child-bearing if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. This means that it requires them to exercise faith to submit to an imperfect husband just because God has commanded them to do.

In the case of Rachel, she was secretly committing idol-worship which angers the jealous God and brings a curse. Also, Rachel was in direct rebellion to her own husband Jacob who had commanded his household to purify themselves from all idolatry and discard any idols found among them at Shechem. If Rachel refused to do this (and retained the idols she stole from Laban) and continued to worship them then she was in sin. She had the sin of idolatry and the sin of not submitting to the orders of her own husband Jacob. It was for this reason that Rachel was living in independence like a goat-type to do whatever they want and who do not submit to God's ordained authority.

Rachel was disobeying God by idol-worship and disobeying her husband Jacob by not getting rid of the idols of Laban. This placed her outside of God's care and protection so she was like a sheep gone astray and open to be devoured by the wolf Satan.

Women have a promise of being preserved in child-bearing if they submit to their husbands and Rachel was not doing this and so she was not preserved in child-bearing.

Genesis 35:19-20 (NASB)

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

²⁰ Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

It is interesting that when Rachel died, she was not too far away from Hebron where the tombs of the patriarchs were located. Bethlehem is relatively close to Hebron considering that Jacob later died in Egypt and was carried a much greater distance from Egypt to be buried in Hebron.

Genesis 49:29-33 (NIV)

²⁹ Then he gave them these instructions: "I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰ the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.

³¹ There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.

³² The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites."

³³ When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

It should be noted that Leah was buried in the tomb of the patriarchs in Hebron together with Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah. It was considered an honor to be buried in this cave with those patriarchs of faith! Leah was a good wife and a woman of faith and she was honored to be buried in this cave (but not her sister Rachel). The body of Jacob was carried from Egypt in Goshen and given burial in the same cave but this was a much greater distance from Egypt to Hebron than it is from Bethlehem to Hebron.

Road-Ditch Burial

Genesis 35:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

This scripture says that Rachel was buried along the way or beside the road to Bethlehem (even though Bethlehem is relatively near to Hebron). This seems odd that they would move a body from Egypt to Hebron for burial but not move Rachel's body from Bethlehem to Hebron for burial.

I believe that the reason for this is that Rachel was involved in secret idol-worship and she had never discarded the idols she stole from Laban.

Genesis 31:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household gods.

Again, it must be emphasized that Rachel stole the idols of Laban and it seems that she carried these idols and worshiped them secretly (since that is the purpose of having an idol).

Genesis 31:32 (NIV)

³² But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.

Jacob also pronounced a curse upon anyone who had the gods of Laban that the thief should not live (not knowing Rachel had stolen them).

Genesis 35:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

Rachel was buried on the way or beside the road to Bethlehem which could be translated as Rachel was buried along the road (or in the road ditch) along the road. The reason I say this is because it is an infamous way of burial for someone to be buried in dishonor (as an idol-worshiper).

Example of Infamous Burial

1 Kings 14:10-13 (NASB)

¹⁰ therefore behold, I am bringing calamity on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male person, both bond and free in Israel, and I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone.

¹¹ "Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs will eat. And he who dies in the field the birds of the heavens will eat; for the LORD has spoken it."'

¹² "Now you, arise, go to your house. When your feet enter the city the child will die.

¹³ "All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam's family will come to the grave, because in him something good was found toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

Jeroboam led the entire nation of Israel into idol-worship and therefore he was cursed. God said that everyone in his household would die and their bodies would be left as carrion for wild dogs and birds to eat. The only one of Jeroboam's household to receive a decent burial was their young son because God saw something good in him. God honored this one good boy with a decent burial but all of the rest of the idol-worshiping household of Jeroboam were killed and left to rot like carrion without a proper burial.

It is for this reason that God must have caused Jacob to bury Rachel along the road (road-ditch) near Bethlehem even though it was not too far from their family tomb in Hebron. Rachel was in fact an idol-worshiper and she was not a submissive wife so she was not preserved in childbirth but died when she gave birth to Benjamin. She was buried along the road (in a road-ditch) like a discarded beer-can because she was considered unworthy as an idol-worshiper to be buried together with the patriarchs of faith. Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah all were people of faith and were honored to be buried in the family cave at Hebron.

But those who worship idols do not have faith in God but instead the pray to idols for their help and request blessing from these man-made objects. This provokes the jealous God to anger and so Rachel was considered unworthy of burial in the same tomb of those patriarchs of faith in Hebron. She was not left as carrion on the ground like the household of the idol-worshiping Jeroboam but yet Rachel was rejected from burial in Hebron because she was not considered worthy of it by God. Therefore, she was buried beside the road (in a road-ditch) as a idol-worshipper! Rachel was not preserved in childbearing because of her lack of submission to her husband Jacob and for having received a curse for idol-worship.

The life of Rachel shows that she never had submission to God when she stole the idols of Laban and secretly kept them and worshiped them. She also did not have submission to her husband Jacob who ordered his household to purify themselves of idol-worship and bury the cursed objects under the oak at Shechem. Rachel still harbored these idols stolen from Laban and this brought a curse upon her.

If Rachel was submitted to the God of Israel, she would not have worshiped idols and if she was submitted to her husband Jacob, she would have discarded of her idols at Shechem. There is lordship involved in obeying God directly and for a woman there is lordship in submitting to God by submitting to her male authority placed over her by the Lord.

Apostleship and Lordship

Every message of an Apostle will typically deal with human freewill. These messages will rebuke disorder and sin and call believers to choose either heaven or hell on each level that they go. Some believers will go level after level but then camp out on some level when they do not want to go any farther.

Lordship is like climbing a steep mountain and passing plateau after plateau as they go higher in God. At each plateau they have to make a decision for heaven or hell. Once they choose to go no farther then that is a choice for hell.

In fact, without lordship there will be no heaven so making a choice to submit to the Lord in everything is also a choice to go to heaven.

Being a believer starts out with a time of "First-Love" when God gives them comfort and edification and love and answered prayers to show himself real to them. But when they mature, they will be required to submit to his lordship as sons.

Deuteronomy 8:5 (NASB)

⁵ "Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

In the "son-level" God no longer pampers them like an infant but requires them to grow up and put away idols from their lives. Rachel carried the idols of Laban for decades before she finally met with judgment and perished in child-bearing. She was rejected by God and was not found worthy to be buried in the same place as those patriarchs of faith who were overcomers. She did not overcome but retained her idolatry for the rest of her life and eventually met with God's judgment.

God will not strive with humans forever even though his patience is great and he may wait for decades for them to repent. Submission to the will of God who calls believers to repentance deals with lordship. If they do not do what God commands then they have not made him their Lord!

Hebrews 12:6 (NKJV)

⁶ For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."

God scourges every son that he receives so that they will be partakers of his holiness. This is true masculine love to discipline his children so they will not end up in hell.

Isaiah 55:6-7 (NIV)

⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Believers are to seek the Lord while he may be found. This implies that God will not always be available or wait forever (even if he is patient and may wait for them for decades to repent). If they harden their hearts and refuse correction repeatedly then eventually, they will cross the line of perdition and they will no longer be able to repent anymore. The Lord will no longer be found by such a perdition-believer who fell away and was rejected by continual long-term unrepentant sin (like Rachel).

Psalm 32:9 (NIV)

⁹ Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.

The believer should not be like a dumb horse or mule that needs a bit in their mouth to make them obey. A bit causes pain so that the horse or mule will obey the rider. If the believer is like a dumb horse or mule and constantly resists God for decades, they may end up with a bit of pain and satanic affliction which calls them to repent.

Hezekiah Spared from Death by Repentance

2 Kings 20:1-3 (NASB)

¹ In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'"

² Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,

³ "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

King Hezekiah was a godly king but he fell into pride when God prospered him greatly and gave him success. In God's mercy he allowed Hezekiah to have a slow death with an infectious boil but this allowed Hezekiah to have time to repent before he died. Once a human dies, they are sealed up for all eternity and if their hearts are not right for God they will go to hell and never get out. Only when they are still alive on earth can they still repent and save themselves from hell.

2 Kings 20:4-7 (NASB)

⁴ Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

⁵ "Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.

⁶ "I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."'"

⁷ Then Isaiah said, "Take a cake of figs." And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

When King Hezekiah repented then God forgave him and added another 15-years to his life and healed him of the boil. It is God's mercy that Hezekiah was able to repent before he died and was forgiven. But humans have a freewill and if they refuse to repent, they will send themselves to hell when they die.

Good King that Fell Out with God

2 Chronicles 16:12-13 (NIV)

¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the

LORD, but only from the physicians.

¹³ Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his fathers.

King Asa was at one time a godly king and a good king in the beginning of his reign but he was rebuked by a prophet for hiring his help from humans rather than trusting in the Lord. This enraged King Asa who punished the prophet for rebuking him. Then this king received a disease in his feet because he opened the door to Satan the destroyer when he rejected God's prophet and refused to repent (like King Hezekiah did) when he was rebuked. This was a slow lingering and painful disease but Asa did not humble himself or repent but only looked to human help of physicians. Asa died in stubborn rebellion to God never repenting of his looking to humans for help instead of God alone. The slow disease was mercy to give him a chance to repent before he died but he did not repent and died under the affliction.

This is an example of not submitting to the Lordship of God and causing himself to be opened to satanic attack like King Saul who was tormented by a demon spirit when he disobeyed God and lived like a goat-type of person doing whatever he wanted in his own independence.

It is for this reason that careful heart examination is the first step in receiving divine healing because the door must be closed to the adversary and all sin is an open door to the devil. These satanic afflictions can serve a purpose to cause a person to repent (just as King Hezekiah humbled himself of his sin of pride and repented) and was healed.

Herein lordship deals with obedience and submission to the will of God. There is submission to God's word (like do not worship idols or submit to your husband). There is also submission on a personal level such as obedience to God’s specific commands. This is like when King Saul was commanded to destroy the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they came out of Egypt. The believer is required to submit to everything in the bible that pertains to them as well as submit to personal direction given to them by the Lord.

This obedience is what lordship is all about and this is the main point of Principle Judah that Jesus is the Lion of Judah and all believers are to submit to the Lordship of Christ as their King (lion).

Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

⁵ Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Believers must repent of being cold and indifferent toward the Lord if they have fallen away from the fervency that they once had as new believers. They must repent of apathy and stir themselves up for the Lord. If they do not return to their first love, they will have their lampstand removed from its place which is also equal to being blotted from God's book and sent to hell.

Hebrews 12:5-11 (NIV)

⁵ And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

⁶ because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

⁸ If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

⁹ Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

The mature believers are to submit to the discipline of God because these things are for those who are no longer infants in Christ but are being trained as sons to stand on their own two feet.

Overcoming Boredom

Even a layman professional who has mastered a trade or profession (and can do this job in his sleep) will have to come to the point of being faithful. After he is already a master, the things can become quite boring and there is nothing left to do but be faithful everyday where God has planted him.

This is also true of any man called into the Fivefold Ministry because they have to be faithful where God has planted them. Many have left their ordained place only because of boredom and seeking to find a place that is more exciting.

But leaving their ordained place (whether they are a layman or a Levite) is not submission to the will of the Father. They have to be honest with themselves and remain where God has planted them and not lie and use the Lord's Name in vain when they falsely say, "God has called me to go to this or that place!" when in fact God has not called them but they are only bored and looking for a change.

All of these issues deal with lordship and being obedient to God and remaining in their ordained place where God has planted them and not moving or going anywhere else out of their own human freewill and human decision to leave.

This is like someone getting tired of waiting for the cloud to move so they get up and go forward on their own. But at this point they will be like sheep gone astray and are out from under the protection of the good shepherd and are now open to be devoured by the wolves!

Every believer is to remain where God has planted them and not go anywhere of their own human decision or human plan.

Obsessions of the Sin Nature

Even Fivefold Ministers can have obsessions which can distract them from their appointed ministry just as Paul become distracted from his ordained place of ministry with the Gentiles.

See the link "Voids and Obsessions" for more details.

Remain in God and Bear Fruit

John 15:4-8 (NIV)

⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

⁸ This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Part of lordship is to abide in God or remain in him. Only those things done in complete submission to the Lord will bear fruit. All other activity is a product of the human sin nature which is unable to sit still or remain faithful but seeks non-stop activity all of the time. But again, this activity derived of the sin nature will not build the kingdom of God but only empowers the sin nature of those who want limelight or attention or seek to escape the boredom of being a housewife or boredom of working a steady job.

Inventing Busywork to Escape Boredom

Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)

³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.

⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

⁴¹ "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things,

⁴² but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Many laymen believers (even bored housewives) will invent nonsense "ministries" for no other reason than they are simply bored. They become like Martha-types who serve God constantly out of their own self-effort. This is in great contrast to the Mary-types who sit at the feet of Jesus and hear his word. The Mary-types are those who are abiding in the Lord and these are the people who bear much fruit because of their relationship with God. Martha-types are too busy to fellowship with God because they are engaged in nonstop self-invented activity that God never told them to do. They are too busy serving God to ever stop to listen to the Lord so they become distracted believers who bear no fruit whatsoever regardless of their nonstop activity in serving the Lord by self-effort.

Principle Judah deals with lordship and Judah as the lion speaks of kingship. So believers are subjects to the King of all kings who is Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. But if the believer does not abide in the vine (like the Mary-types) then they will become like a dry and fruitless branch. Only those who abide in the vine will bear much fruit. All other activity (serving God in self-effort like Martha-types) is derived from human sin nature and is a waste of time like running on a treadmill but going nowhere!