OPEN THE GRAVE

 

I'M COMING OUT

Studying about the grave; Hosea 13:14, the grave also known as she'ol (the underworld, the place of hell) comes from sha'al meaning to demand, to ask, to require. Therefore hell is hungry, greedy devourer of humanity, is never full or satisfied, never says enough. 

Proverbs 30:15 The leech (the devil) has two daughters Give and Give! There are three things that are never satisfied, Four never says enough.

1Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

The grave is also known then and now as the resting place of those whose soul and spirit have left this temporary home we call earth, and for our saved loved ones are in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1:18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen, and I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Hades, was known as the place where all the souls/spirits of the dead awaited judgment. That was before the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With the resurrection of Christ all true believers souls/spirits enter into the presence of our Savior.

2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, yes, well pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Those who are unbelievers are kept in Hades some say Hell both are temporary holding places waiting for the Great White Throne Judgment.

It is said that when Jesus died He entered into Hell/Hades to take back the keys of Death, Hell and the Grave that is recorded in the scripture above from Revelation 1:8 and found in Ephesians 4:8-10 and 1 Peter 3:18-22.

In Matthew 16 we find these words; verse 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

What are these keys that keep showing up? The keys represent "authority". Jesus has all authority and through His death and resurrection He took away from Satan any authority, he had been given by Adam and the fall of man, and gave His authority over the spiritual realm to His church/His followers.

Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave (translated from the word sha'al); I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.

Jesus Christ was the ransom paid on our behalf that Death, Hell and Grave would no longer have authority over us and we would no longer have fear of death! Because we know this body, our earthen vessel, is both aging and dying and has been since the day of our birth. 

Search the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 15:35-50.

Though Hades/Hell is a temporary holding place for the unbeliever, their final destination is the Lake of Fire; read Revelation 20:11-15

Revelation 20:14-15 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

The valley of decision rest for every person while we are still in our current earthen vessel, because once death has come we cannot change our destination. The word tells us in 1Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18,  that a day is coming when Jesus will call His bride to come up, when that happens then both the dead in Christ and the ones alive in Christ will receive our new bodies, bodies that are not corruptible but designed for eternal life. As we will receive bodies fit for life eternal with Christ Jesus, the unbeliever will receive, at the Great White Throne Judgment, new bodies that are fit for eternity in the Lake of Fire, burning in torment yet never consumed.

Well what brought me to studying about "The Grave"? Sunday February 21,2021 while worshipping to the song "Rattle" a verse says "Open the grave I'm coming out, Live, Live", I heard God say to me "Too many want to enter the grave with their loved ones, the grave is not for the living"! I was stunned and also remembered the scripture says "He turns mourning into dancing", which is in another song I like, but God said to me as I thought on this"You can't dance in the grave". I do not know the purpose of why God spoke this; but, I know 2 things 1. God never speaks without a purpose and 2. I do know grieving is different for everyone, and some find themselves in a deep state of depression, unable to come out of their loved ones grave and keep on living, grieving is not to be this way. Their memory will never leave us, there will always be moments in time when we cry, desire another conversation, another hug, just a little more time. Yet, we must keep on living and moving forward, always loving them, never forgetting them and yes our lives and our holidays are forever changed. But we are still alive and we are looking forward to that reunion in heaven and we will never be apart again.

Go back and read John 11 about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, notice when he came out of the grave, he still had his grave clothes on. Jesus told those with him to loose his grave clothes that he would be free. We know that before we were saved we were in fact spiritually dead because of our sinfulness. At our salvation Jesus resurrected in us a new life, or also called "we became a new creation". The grave clothes from our bondage is to be released because we have been set free. But at times we want to hang on to some things that Jesus has actually freed us from, and Jesus will have mentors, pastors, spiritual leaders, followers of Christ, to come along beside us and help us take off our grave clothes, it's called discipling. 

 In the spiritual we die daily to self (this process is taking off our grave clothes) and as we place our self desires, will and way in the grave, we are resurrected as Jesus intends for us to be, it is a place of total surrender, as we know when Jesus died He was placed in a tomb/grave and from there He was resurrected from death. With death comes resurrection, and there rest our hope. Whether in our spiritual dying to self or in our physical dying. Never forget as a believer we in the physical only do a change of address, we trade this earthly home for our heavenly home, and in the spiritual we take on the characteristics of Jesus and our forever home.

Actually these are only a tiny bit of an overview of the grave from the physical and the spiritual. Hope it helped someone, perhaps it was just to help me 😁♥️

Be Blessed, Linda

 

PRAY JUST PRAY PART 2

 

 HEARD A WISE & GODLY MAN SAY SOMETHING THAT CHANGED ME!

Just so you know, I will always pray for people, I will storm the gates of hell in prayer for you. I pray when I am silent, and I can pray softly and I can pray loudly. But weeping doesn't come! I assumed it was not as God created me to pray, or possibly because my tear glands are stopped up and I have dry eyes. But I accepted the way I prayed. P.S. there was nothing wrong with how I was praying, but I was about to learn something very important to my prayer life, something God was doing in me when I heard my pastor say.

My daughter Angela, was in the hospital with COVID, fighting for her life, we were at church praying for her, and with great passion in his voice I heard my pastor say; "When I pray for Linda's daughter, Angela, I pray like she is my daughter. We are family and we pray for one another as family". I don't recall every hearing someone say that before, if they did it must have went in one ear and out the other. But this has not left me. Even last night as I slept it was in my thoughts and I had to repent, because I have not prayed as if you were my child, my parent, my sibling, my flesh and blood.

You see when it is my flesh and blood "I weep". I cry out non stop. God reminded me during the night hours of a scripture "We rejoice with those who rejoice, we weep with those who weep." It is found in Romans 12:15. Now this doesn't mean that everytime we pray we need to be weeping. It does mean that when my brother or sister in Christ are hurting so badly that I hurt with them, I don't sit myself up to judge whether their hurt is overly exaggerated, that doesn't matter, what matters is to them it is great pain and I pray as if their pain is my pain. 

We are to pray, some call it "Travail in prayer". I looked up what that meant and here is the definition:

Travail tells God that this is important.....that this matters to you....that you will do whatever it takes to see God move on behave of the person you are praying for.

Do we pray like that for those who are not our blood relatives? God forgive me, for I have fallen short in this. 

I do not believe the "name it and have it" theology that a lot have fallen for. But I do believe in aligning my prayers with God's promises and praying His word over all I am praying for. I have often heard "just pray Your will be done". That is a true statement, but what is His will? We learn His will through His word, so we pray His word, we speak is word, we hold onto His word, we trust His word. We pray expecting God to hear and to answer even when someone is dying we keep praying for their healing until they take their last breath. 

FOOTNOTE: There are times a person may have suffered many years from a disease and the family realizes that it is God's grace, and mercy that Jesus take them home to be completely healed and whole in heaven. But the pain of their loss to us is still great.

On November 24, 2020, I heard God say; "This is not unto death". I knew it was scripture, and for a few days He kept speaking it, so I looked it up, found in the account of Lazarus death, John 11:4. But I held onto that word, I prayed it, I expected it, I believed it. We saw miracles where the doctor said no hope but God stepped in and I held onto that word and I expected it and I believed it, I prayed it and I spoke it. Then came the call on December 26,2020, Angela left us for her heavenly home. And I looked at that word and I said "Do I even know Your voice?"

 "But I read on in John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

As a believer in Christ death does not happen, instead we just have a change of address, our bodies are left here, but our spirit, our soul continues to live. And one day when the trumpet sounds we will be raised in our new bodies and connect with our soul and spirit. We will be known as we were, we will know our loved ones and they will know us. Do you believe this?

But here right where we are we persevere in prayer, we align ourselves with God's promises found in His word, we pray as if they are our family member and we weep with them and for them.

John 11:35 Jesus wept

John 14:14 If you ask anything in My name I will do it

1 John 5:14-15 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked Him for.

My finite mind cannot comprehend all of this, but I know who my God is and I have placed my life and my families lives in His hands. Though there are many times my prayers didn't appear to go the way I planned, there were more times they did. So irregardless I pray, and I battle and I weep and I praise. Because the greatest sacrifice we can make is to praise Him when we can't find a reason to.

Hebrews 13:15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Be blessed and keep praying, keep expecting, keep trusting.

 Love you all, Linda

PRAY, JUST PRAY, PART 1

Does God hear our prayers? When do we pray? What do our prayers sound like? Do we expect God to answer or do we just hope He does? What do we do when we hear in our minds "What difference does it make, what will be will be!"

Hopefully we will address these, and more in this short study. But first I want to give you just a few bible verses where people prayed:

David: Psalm 141:1-2 LORD, I cry to You; Make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry to You. Let my prayer be set before you as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

(More from David Psalm 142:1-7, Psalm 143:1-12 and many more)

Revelation 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints (All born again believer), ascended before God from the angel's hand.

In Exodus 30 when God gave Moses instructions on building the tabernacle, there was an altar of incense, both morning and night the priest would burn this particular incense with a particular fire, as he would offer prayers up to God for the children of Israel, in this way the incense was to burn continually. This symbolized by the sweet smelling smoke ascending into heaven as our prayers. Today we don't need to burn incense because Jesus Christ is our bridge to our Father's throne. But prayer is to come up to God continually

1Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing

How in the world can anyone pray continually, without ceasing? Well we must be open to the drawing of the Holy Spirit, to enter into prayer. Whether during the day when we suddenly start thinking about someone, or to suddenly wake up at night feeling an urgency to pray. Another thing is we keep praying for someone, or about something in particular, until God answers or God releases us.

Luke 18:1 Then He (Jesus) spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.

See that "lose heart" it is mentioned again in Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

"Lose Heart"means to become discouraged, to just give up because we do not see a change. God always hears our prayers and His answer is coming, sometimes while waiting we become discouraged and stop praying. Sometimes God's answer has been sent but there is a battle happening in the spirit realm to stop our answer. Recalling what happened to Daniel, in the Book of Daniel he had been praying and fasting for three whole weeks, then an angel reached him:

Daniel 10:12 Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.

It goes on to say that a demonic force in the spirit realm had delayed God's answer. There is the natural realm we see with our eyes and there is a spirit realm that our natural eyes cannot see. Us in our normal prayer life, why would satan and his demons want to stop God's answer to our prayers? So we will become discouraged (lose heart) and stop praying, especially when we are praying for the lost, or the wayward, or healing. Ever been praying for a lost family member for years and then hear something like this in your mind, "He/she are never going to change, they are a hopeless cause" and then you find yourself stopping your prayers for them. That is exactly what the enemy wants us to do, just silence our prayers. Yet, God's word tells us to persevere in prayer. To pray expecting, believing, trusting, Amen.

Psalm 116:1-2 I LOVE the LORD, because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

Oh my my my, those verses so touch my heart. "Inclined" means He leans down toward us.  Do you get it, do you hear what is being said? God the Giver of Life, our Creator loves us so much He leans down to listen to us.

I have heard some say, "God doesn't care about the little things I just pray about the important things"! Let me ask you do you care about the little things in your children's lives? Our Heavenly Father cares about everything in our lives, why He sent Jesus to die for every part of us, He gave us His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us, to help us in our prayers. We should be not just praying for others, but praying for ourselves. What do I mean you ask? I pray: " Father draw me deeper into You, examine my heart, reveal my sins, forgive me for the words I spoke in anger, the neglect I have given You, teach me Your ways, purify all that is in me that is of You and consume with Your fire all that is not of You." Just a little example. People we have both a gift and a privilege to pray, anytime, day or night, we must not neglect such a privilege that many do not have. God invites us, He beckons us to come into His Throne Room, into His chamber for a time of intimacy. There are times I just want to sit in His presence and not say a word, to be like Mary and sit at the Master's feet, to wash His feet with tears and the oil in my alabaster box. 

Have you been there, in that moment when everything is removed from your thinking, distractions are removed. You won't find that praying on your way to work or sitting in a parking lot at work, though it is ok to do that, as long as you don't close your eyes while driving. In those intimate times we stay until Jesus releases us. Quality time is better than quantity time. Because of where I am in this season, for me my times are shorter and more often, than perhaps some of you.

I think I may stop here, so much more to talk about so I think I will do a part two.

May God bless you and keep you, may His light shine upon you.