Photo: Elin Therese Slotten. She has spoken prophetically, so Jesus has spoken to me through her. Concerning pedagogy, we are Jesus’ disciples. He has used her as a medium, so for me, she has been a mediating helper.
God does His work in us with His Word and His Spirit and build us up in our inner man and build up Jesus’ church as a spiritual temple.
I grew up in the church and my mother taught me to pray my evening prayer, it was to call upon Christ as our Savior and Lord, ask Him to save our loved ones and pray like that for the people and the country and then pray the Lord’s Prayer. When I was nine years old, I realized that salvation was the opposite of being deceived and fooled as in the fall, so I began to ask Him to save us from it, as the first priority, and to give me a saved wife as my second priority. Then I noticed that He was close to me, like a shadow at my right hand, as it is written, so I came to know Him as my best friend and since then He has not abandoned me and I have not denied Him.
Jesus said he would not leave his disciples as orphans, he would send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth to them. In this Spirit he would come and reveal himself to them, he and the Father would dwell with them.
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. ”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world? ”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
I experienced this most strongly when I prayed for a girl that I grew to love and it was first and foremost a prayer of thanksgiving, first for Virtually, then for Real, later for Poly-Ester as well, but that was not so much of a revelation, it was to experience God’s power. She was from Ukraine.
In the fall of 1985, Jesus said to me: “The praise song I put down in you, it is yours and it will be yours forever, in the depths of you, there it is. The covenant you made with me, it remains and it will stand firm for all eternity.” It reminded me that when I was in high school, I fell in love with a Christian girl (Virtually) who praised God and the Lamb for salvation. I bowed my knees by the bed and acknowledged to God that His love was between us and with that confession I opened myself even more to that love and received a new fullness of the Holy Spirit. She was born of the Spirit and what is born of the Spirit is spirit, she was in the Spirit and I felt that He put her in my heart and it made me so good.
Jesus also said that he would heal your years of apostasy and I understand that it was referring to her. He said that there is a disease between God’s people and I have felt some of this disease in me (in comparison to Jeremiah), there was surely something about me devoting myself to him, then he would heal it. Yes, I understood it to mean that it was for me.
Jesus is the prince of life, He has given me eternal life, it is unaffected by death and this world’s dark and destructive powers.
M40, Wednesday 5 July 1995.
“Yes, for I have delivered you out of the power of darkness and put you into the kingdom of my beloved Son. You have experienced my boundless grace; to pass from death to life, from the power of Satan to God, from darkness and into a wonderful light. You were dead, but now you are alive, and alive in me, says the Lord. For I also was dead, but I rose and I live. And therefore I bring life and imperishability before the light, through the gospel. And this is the message you have received.
Then it is no longer death and the destructive forces that have power over your life. But it is I who am the prince of life, and who have dwelt by faith in your heart. That you may live with me, and that when the day cometh you may reign with me, says the Lord. For I have put you into something new, something living, something proper and something real, you have been given a share in eternal life. This which is unaffected by all the forces of death, this which is unaffected by all the darkness and destructive forces of this world, you have been given a share in eternal life, that which stands, that which remains, that which withstands all the tests of fire, that endures forever and ever. It is your life, because you are my child.
I know that you may encounter dark times on your walk. I know that you may feel that the enemy army is all around you. But because you are my child, I have set you up on a cleared way. A ploughed way. No beast of prey, no lion shall be able to come upon it. And no traveler on this way shall go astray. And that way, it goes to Zion. It goes to the place that I have prepared for you. Then you will follow faithfully in my footsteps, and you will experience; the way you walk, though it may be narrow and tortuous, it is the way of life, it goes to the goal of life, the goal that I have for you, my beloved child.”
Jesus walks by my side and I will give myself completely to Him.
The sickness I felt inside me, like Jeremia, about 1985, was likely what he many years later spoke about as a sore abscess, at a meeting in Filadelfia on 27.11.2022:
Inge spoke in tongues from the pulpit, then Jarle came with a message, it was likely the translation of the speech in tongues, (I was slow to start the video, so I didn’t get the beginning):
« ….. but still lies there like a sore abscess in your life. Know my child, you are not lost in any way, says the Lord, you are my child and I will help you on the way, says the Lord. Just stay safe, when you stick to me, you will see, I will help you on your journey, says the Lord. I have said it many times before, I am not walking behind you, my child, I am walking before you. And know … in front of you and I know what you are going to face in everyday life, says the Lord, I will be with you. I have said it so many times, know my child, where you go, I go. I walk by your side, I walk by your walk. And I am not far away from any of you, says the Lord, but my child, you who are struggling with things in your life, turn to me again. Do not give up. If you have asked me a thousand times to take away this thing that you know is so difficult, then you know, one day there was one in a way that you had not thought of in your own life. And you have thought out ideas of how to solve this. But know, trust me says the Lord, I am gentle and patient. I take you on the altar again and again and I do not stand there with any scourge, says the Lord, I will not beat you my child, for I love you. I want you to turn, you will give yourself 100% of your life to me and you will see, when you do, you walk safely through the day. You will not go with any accusation, because I love you, my child, I will help you on the way. Amen.”
Yes, the matter was that since I was a boy I had asked Jesus to give me a saved woman for my girlfriend and wife and He has answered me that He is the one who takes care of my case, so I will come to Him with it and surrender myself completely to Him.
He said that he would descend and fertilize my faith and my love from him (10.5.2009) and then I thought of Real and Virtually, the one he would give me as a wife and then I thought of my loved ones. I imagine that he will descend and meet Virtually, where he laid her, in my heart and thus heal this abscess. Paul spoke of the thorn in the flesh and I imagine that for me it has become the cause of an abscess. Because in this social context I am rejected, so that I do not get to acknowledge to them what Christ is to me and to us. Then it is as if they demand that I try to do God’s work and finish what he started, but I can’t. In this sense, I should be weak and bet that God’s grace is enough for me.
They despise my childhood faith as if it were wrong, so they contradict and thus say the opposite of what I have been asking for, since I was a boy, Their strategy is to deceive and seduce the woman, as in the case of the Fall, and then use her to lure the man with.
2 Corinthians 12:1 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.
3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—
4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—
6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I will look at him who is author and perfector of our faith, he met her in my heart and I expect that he will still meet her like this.
Heb.12, 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Do Not Grow Weary
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. ”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Mount Zion has been lifted up, so it is the meeting place.
Heb.12: 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
What was the point of me not being able to meet her again, after all? Clearly to take away the daily sacrifice. It is the rebellion against the Lord that has made itself heard in the protest against Paul’s teaching that Jesus is the head of the man and the man is the head of the woman and thus Christ is the head of the church that is his bride.
I will rejoice in the Lord always, and He will give me the desires of my heart.
Meeting in Maranata 12.10.2014.
Speaking in tongues by Mari, interpretation by John Miland:
“Yes, says the Lord, I have said in my word, that you shall rejoice and be glad in my salvation. Delight yourself in me, says the Lord, and I will give you the desires of your heart. Do not be concerned with what is around you, do not look to the right or to the left, but keep your eyes fixed on me, says the Lord. Be concerned with what is above. I have said in my word, if you are raised with me, then you will seek what is above. But one thing is necessary, says the Lord, that is to be filled with my Spirit, filled with my anointing and power at this time. For behold, the evil one is against you. But with my power and my anointing, you will overcome, more than overcome, says the Lord. For behold, the spirit that is in you is stronger than the one that is in the world.
Many are those in these days who look back and who are lagging behind on the road. Therefore, my children, you shall cry out to me and pray for them, that they may receive new strength and new courage and I will meet them again, says the Lord. For behold, there are many who are wounded, there are many who are in pain and suffering. But you, my children, you shall go out and comfort them. And you shall help them on the way, for I have said in my Word that the strong, those I owe to carry the weak. For behold, there are many weak among my people. But I, the Lord, desire to call them in these days and I, the Lord, will fill them with my anointing and power. And then the weak will say, I am a hero. For behold, it is only with my strength that you can win victory.
Yes, I will praise and exalt you, my Savior and Lord, because you have saved me, because you have written my name in the book of life. And I know that when you come, I will be with you. And I will be among the multitude that shall enter into the city with the secure foundations. Oh, how I long to see thee, whom my soul loveth. Amen.”
END OF QUOTE.
The Word of Jesus is food for spirit, soul and body, He came to build up and enable you to walk in the doings He has prepared for you.
Maranata 28.10.2018.
Speaking in tongues by Mary, interpretation by Håkon.
“When you hear my word spoken today, you shall keep it, you shall meditate on it, you shall make it food for your soul, and for your spirit, and for your body. For my word which I spoke, it is spirit and it is life. And I, the Lord, I did not come to tear down, but I came to lift up. I came to build you up, to prepare you for all these works that I have prepared for you, that you may walk in them. Not in your own power, but in anointing with my good Holy Spirit, whom I have sent. He will show you the way and lead you, He will enlighten your inner man, so that you may receive even greater power and anointing and authority in My name. For I, the Lord, I have chosen you, just at a time like this, to prepare you and finish what I intend to do now in this time of termination. For I am coming, I who am to come, but before these days I, the Lord, I will save and free man from all who are subjugated by the Devil, for that is why I came, and I am still going about doing good and healing and setting people free.”
22.1.2024. Now is the time for you to trust God in all things. You will go from power to power. You are the head and not the tail. Prophetic message by Elin Therese Slotten.
“Now is the time for you, to trust God in all things. Put down everything you have and everything you are. This is the year for you, when you will see that God is working in your life. Now is the time to take the next step with God, you are to go from power to power and not from valley to valley. You are head and not tail. And God wants to use you this year. God longs to see you completely surrendered to Him and His ways. For you who have sown for a long time, with tears and longing for God, God says that you should not give up and do not lose heart, you will see that God answers you to all your longings. Then God says: I am a God who hears prayer and I am a God who gathers your tears in my bottle, continues to pray for your family, they will be saved. They are sustained by your prayers, you are precious to me and important to me and my kingdom. I have big plans for you and your life. My thoughts for you are the future and hope. You are not abandoned and not alone. I see you and your life. You are important to me and your family is important to me, says the Lord. Now is the time for you to trust that I am a good God, also in your life. Bring your burdens and lay them at the foot of the cross. And I will take it away from you. This year is a new time with new doors for you. This year is a time of surrender and trust. Do not look to the right or to the left, do not look at the waves with which the Devil distracts you. Lift up your eyes to me and seek and direct your eyes to the things above and not to the things that are on the earth. My name, says the Lord, is a strong tower. You shall run to it and be safe. Have I not commanded you, be bold and strong. Do not fear, do not be afraid, for the Lord your God is with you in everything you do. Set your trust in me, says the Lord, and my word, not the powers of this world and everything that happens around you. Storms and tribulations will come in this world, but those who look up to me will shine brighter and brighter in the darkness of this world. Those who cling to me and allow themselves to be filled by me and not by the darkness and lies of this world will be used more and more strongly by me, says the Lord. They will find and feel my presence and love and it will keep them in joy and peace in the midst of the storm. Those who come to me for advice and guidance will find it and keep themselves clean from the world’s lies and deception. Deception and lying will increase on this earth, therefore you must stay close to me and my word, in order to see the truth, says the Lord. Your home is not on this earth, your home is here with me. Do not love this world and the things that are in this world, set your eyes on me. I sustain all who stumble and raise up all the bowed down and will feed them at the proper time. I am gracious and full of mercy, slow to anger and abundant in faithful love. I will never forsake you, I am good to all. I am righteous in all my ways, merciful in all my works. I am close to you when you call on me, when you call on me in truth. Put your trust in me with all your heart. Do not rely on your own understanding. Remember me in all your ways, and I will direct your paths straight. Amen.”
10.2.2024. I have heard your prayer for your family and I will not let your words fall to the ground. Prophetic message by Elin Therese Slotten.
“Behold, I am coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see me, even those who pierce me. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord. He who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Fear not, my child, I am the first and the last. Behold, I am he who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for all eternity. I hold the keys of death and hell. I have heard your prayer for your family. I am true to my word. I will not let your words fall to the ground. I will chase after your family members, when you pray. I will save them. Keep on praying, for it gives me the right to go after them with my Spirit. Tribulation will come upon this earth. Trials will increase, but my saints will grow and sprout in my courts. Those who love me and my word will flourish and shine brighter and brighter. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing under its wings, and you will go out and run like calves when they are let out of the barn. My glory will fill the earth. Great things will happen that have not been seen before. I will show My glory. Angels will become more common to see. The supernatural will become more and more common, for I am a supernatural God. God is a spirit and I want my worshippers to worship Me in spirit and in truth. Stay close to Me at this time. The seduction will be great upon the world, but My Word stands forever firm. With me there is no change or shifting shadow. I am the truth, the way, and the life. I purify you through fire and test your heart. I am a zealous God and desire your whole heart, every room, a faith, trust, and a love that grows, even through trials and pain. I will never let you go, nor will I ever leave you. To the one who overcomes, I will give to eat of the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone, and on the stone is written a new name that no one knows, except the one who receives it. To the one who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of God’s Paradise. Whoever overcomes, and maintains my works to the end, I will give power over the nations, and he will rule over them with a rod of iron. Like the potter’s vessels, they will be broken. As I have been given it by my father, and I will give him the morning star. He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of the Lamb, but I will acknowledge his name to my father and his angels. Whoever overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go outside again. I will write the name of my God on him, and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven, from my God. I will write my new name on him. To him who overcomes, I will give to sit with me on my throne, as I have overcome, and to sit with my Father, on his throne. Bee faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life, says the Lord. Behold, I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one shall take your crown. Amen.”
Nearly the second half of this was like the promises given to 7 angels in Rev.3-4.
2024.06.26. Prophecy: “I will adorn you with my gifts.”
Prophetic message by Elin Therese Slotten.
“You have been through a lot, my child. The evil one has been after your life again and again. You have felt alone, as if I have not seen you and that I have abandoned you. But you were never alone, my child. I have been there, close by your side through every storm that hit you. I will never leave you, my beloved child. You are precious! I know that your pain has put a lid on your vision, and that you have not seen me there. But I never left you, not for a second! The evil one shall pay for all the evil he has done to you, and I have promised you in my word that I will turn everything for good to those who love me. Good fruits will come out of your pain! It will not be in vain! Your life will bear fruit for me and you will be victorious! What the devil meant by evil and your destruction, I have used against him and you have tortured him with your constant devotion and love for me, through your adversity. As the rain allows everything that lives to grow, tears and pain can produce blossoming and maturity. You stand steadier today than ever and you will continue to grow with me! You will carry my glory and healing to this world. You will be my hands and feet. I will adorn you with my gifts and glory and your wounds I will heal with gold. It will forever be a mark that all heaven will see. A visible proof of your victory over all attacks of the evil one. Your reward will be great and your joy will never end. All your choices and your affection have been noticed and seen. You are mine and I am pleased with you.”
He said that I have not seen him there and I think it refers to the area where he put the praise-song in me, but it has become sore abscess in my life. But he will descend and fertilize my faith and my love from him, so I expect that he will descend and meet her again there, so that she will have another meeting with him and I will see him again there. So it will be healing for me and for her and for many, he will heal the sickness that is between God’s people, all the way from the apostasy of Israel.
2024.08.31. Prophetic message: “Jesus said he gave me a dream and wants me to bring back the dream and dream big with him.”
Prophetic mesasage by Elin Therese Slotten:
“You have dreamed big with me, my child. There was a time when you accepted the calling I put in your spirit. I put dreams and longings in your heart and I gave you pictures of what was to come. You held on to it and dreamed about it for a long time. But then one day you gave up the calling and put a lid on what was once given to you. Time passed and you never saw what you dreamed of. And you thought that it was just a dream that will never happen. But my child, that dream was given to you by me. It wasn’t just from your own heart. You may have forgotten and put a lid on it, but I haven’t forgotten it. You will reap if you just don’t give up and lose heart. I call you today to believe me again. Bring forth what was once given to you and dream big with me. Don’t give up and don’t be discouraged because it’s yours. I gave you visions of my purpose and plan for your life and it will never be taken away from you. I am able to put it into action. I am able to do far more than you ask me and can understand. You are called and you are still mine! Even if the dream takes longer than you thought it would, that doesn’t mean I’m not faithful to put it into action. Let me do my work in you and trust me. When you ask for something that is according to my will, it will be given to you.”
2025.05.08 “The devil has really tried to divide and destroy your family, he only comes to murder, steal and destroy. He is a liar and the father of lies, he has whispered in your ears over and over again, that there is no hope for your family, it will never be good, they will never understand or they will never be saved. But it is a lie, nothing is impossible for me, says God.”
Prophetic message by Elin Therese Slotten.
Her own reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_GwDlPLzLE
My write-down:
“I have seen how you have been treated by your family, I have seen your pain and I see your wounds. I see your frustration and how much it cost you to be good to the one who hurt you. I am not blind to your situation, I am a God who has deep compassion for you in your trials. I have also been let down and misunderstood by mine, I have been tried in everything, so I have deep compassion and understanding for your pain, my child. The devil has really tried to divide and destroy your family, he only comes to murder, steal and destroy. He is a liar and the father of lies, he has whispered in your ears over and over again, that there is no hope for your family, it will never be good, they will never understand or they will never be saved. But it is a lie, nothing is impossible for me, says God. Fear not, just believe, I can do anything through anyone. I can turn every situation upside down on a day. I am powerful and no one is too difficult for me to change. Just pray to me and have faith, my child, to what I can do. Today is the day to forgive your family, for not loving you as you needed, for not understanding you and receiving you as you needed so painfully. Forgive them and let me take care of them and your heart. You cannot love them as I can, they cannot understand you as I can. I will never let you down my love, I will never let you go or leave you, continue to pray for your family and give them to me. Let me carry them in my strong hand, I will hear your prayer for your family and I will chase them, if you choose to forgive and bless and not curse them with your words. I love everyone in your family and you as a family are important to me, I have a plan for you too. Amen.”
Jesus will descend and fertilize my faith and love from him. I shall bring forth the dream he gave me and dream great with him.
When I was in high school, I imagined that when God gives me a saved woman as a girlfriend and wife, I would receive her as a child of God in accordance with
Matt.18,1 At that moment the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 Then he called a little child, set him in the midst of the 3, and said, assuredly, I say to you, unless you turn around and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever makes himself small like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 Whoever receives such a little child in my name receives me.
So it became a beautiful dream for me to receive Virtually, embrace her and give her a hug. When I met her again in Bergen and she learned that it came as an answer to prayer because I loved her, I experienced it as a spiritual pleasure, even though she was physically far away from me. How could I now get her to meet me physically as well? Jesus told me that He was the one who took care of my case, so I should come to Him with it.
Now he spoke of this as if I had dreamed great with him, yes, for I imagined that this was due to the creation in Genesis 2, but now God creates us in Christ, he is the last Adam, who is from heaven and who for us has become a life-giving spirit. So he wants me to bring back the dream and dream big with him again, he wants to put it into practice.
God is perfect and He is love, He loves us with the perfect love in Christ and we love because He loved us first. Then it is first and foremost Him we love, this is how we love God. This applies to both men and women. Then we are to love our neighbors as ourselves and we also do it because Jesus loved us first. Since I have asked Jesus to give me a saved woman as a wife and He gives it to me, then it will be the case that I love her because Jesus loved me first and then I will experience that He loves her through me. Likely it will be the same for her too, so that she loves me because He loved her first and gets to experience it so that He loves me through her. So this is how Jesus answers me to my prayer for a saved woman as a wife. All this is spiritual and we are to let the Spirit reign in our mortal body. Presumably He will carry it out by His Spirit ruling in our mortal body.
Jesus gives me a future and hope, for time and eternity.
It seems a bit strange that I should still believe and hope that Jesus will give me a saved woman as a wife—something I have prayed for since I was a small boy. It seemed that even Christians looked down on me for my childlike faith; I didn’t fit in then, and now I am too old as well, for the norm is for a man to find a wife when both he and she are young. Now I am nearly 69, and yet He intends to give me a wife—perhaps even two or three? After all, Abraham was 100 years old when he had his son Isaac, and Jacob had two wives. David had several.
When Moses was old, God called him to lead His people out of Egypt toward the Promised Land. But because they did not believe in Him, they were not allowed to enter; they had to wait for a new generation to arise. That generation did enter, but later they fell away from Him and were carried off to Babylonia, because they did not believe in Him and paid no heed to what He told them. This serves as a warning to us in our own time.
Heb.3,7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways. ’
11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest. ’”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today, ” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. ”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
But God gave his people a future and hope, even when they were in slavery in Babylonia.
Jer.29,4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,
9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
But after they had returned to their own land, he wanted to give them dreams.
Joel.2,28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
And He has given me a dream and wants me to take it up again and dream big with Him; it is a calling He has given me, one He wants me to say yes to. It is like a vision for the future—a prophecy of what is to come, which He intends to set in motion and bring to pass.
Furthermore, Jesus has said that I should thank Him for salvation and rejoice in the Lord, and He will grant me the desires of my heart. Then I shall turn my mind toward what is above, where He is, and fix my gaze upon Him. He gives me Spirit and life from heaven, and that is what I must set my heart upon. I desire a woman; I desire her body; yet, in the same way, I long for the Spirit and the life that Jesus gives us from heaven. How do these things go together? By the fact that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. We may come to Jesus and drink of the living water, so that within us there becomes a spring welling up to eternal life.
Jesus has called me onto the path to the New Jerusalem; it exists in God’s heaven and will descend to the new earth. The New Jerusalem is the Bride of Jesus. When He gives me a saved woman as a wife, I can view her in this light: she is the Bride of Jesus. Thus He attends to my cause; He gives me a wife who lives in a loving relationship with Him—as His bride—and in a loving relationship with the Father—as His child. He treats my cause as His own; my request is that He give me a saved woman as a wife—so that He may have her for Himself—and His cause is the Church as His bride, so He desires her for Himself. If she is cleansed by His blood, the result is that He gets to have her for Himself.
The saving work of Jesus is finished and perfect; man can neither add to it nor take anything away from it. I have asked Him to give me a saved woman as a wife, and since He is the One who attends to my cause, I must bring it to Him and surrender myself 100% to Him; in due time, He will give her to me—fully—as a gift. And the future prospect is eternal, for the New Jerusalem is the place with firm foundations, the city that is never torn down.
How can we reconcile this with Jesus’ words that in the life to come, no one marries or is given in marriage?
Matt.22,23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,
24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ’
25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.
26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh.
27 After them all, the woman died.
28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her. ”
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:
32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. ”
33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
And when Jesus returns to gather His own, people are living ordinary lives—marrying and being given in marriage—but then that day comes upon them unexpectedly.
Luk.17,26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—
30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.
35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left. ”
37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord? ” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. ”
At the Fall, humans idolized with their own knowledge and hid from God with a guilty conscience; they concluded that the loving relationship between man and woman was something with which God had no business, and thus they no longer lived in fellowship with Him. Yet God reconciled the world to Himself through Christ’s death on the cross in our place; on that basis, we may re-enter into fellowship with Him. However, when Jesus returns to gather His own, it will come as a surprise to many—leaving them behind—because they either failed to be reconciled to God on the foundation of the Gospel, or they had fallen away from Him and no longer live in fellowship with Him. The central point, just as at the Fall, is that they hide from God with a guilty conscience and conclude that the loving relationship between man and woman is something God should have no part in; consequently, they no longer live in fellowship with Him.
Jesus has said that He is the One who takes up my cause; therefore, I am to bring it to Him and surrender myself completely to Him. Indeed, His grace is sufficient for me; this relates to being like the five wise virgins who brought oil in cans in addition to the oil in their lamps, ensuring they had enough. Yet there are many who refuse to accept this, devising other things instead; they resemble the five foolish virgins who went off to buy oil but arrived too late to enter the wedding feast (Matt. 25:1…).
