Jesus also said that a WICKED & ADULTEROUS GENERATION seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given them but the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah stayed in the belly of a whale 3 for days and then came to Ninevah with a message of REPENTANCE.
1 Corinthians 4:20 is really talking about apostolic order, and the arrogance of those who don’t want to follow Apostolic ordinances because of their speaking talents. Let’s look at the context of 1 Corinthians 4:20:
1 Corinthians 4:16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. 17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. 18 Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. 19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. 20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. 21 What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?
Apostle Paul is basically saying: “You have some prideful people in your congregations that think because they can speak well and have oratory talent and a prophetic gift – that they don’t have to follow the apostolic ordinances. When I come we are going to take a look at the results.”
The devil can fake signs & wonders but he can’t fake obedience to God’s Commandments or Submission to His ways or His order. 👑👑👑👑
Some rebellious but gifted people have messed up lives, messed up marriages, messed up families. Then they spread their mess to congregations because they have a gift & talent but without submission or obedience to the Kingdom Gospel, Kingdom Commandments, and Kingdom Ordinances.
The true Gospel of the Kingdom is given in POWER. The Power of Holiness. The Power of Sanctification. The Power to Heal, the Power to Cast Out Demons. The Power of Transformation. ThePower of Order. The Power of an actual KING of an actual DOMAIN.
Who is this KING? Jesus/Yahusha. The Kingdom is HIS!
His Kingdom Gospel, His Kingdom Commandments, His Kingdom Ordinances (apostolic ordinances) are essential to live out His Kingdom fruitfully.
Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately , saying , Tell us,when shall these things be ? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying , I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled : for all these things must come to pass , but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shallbetray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise , and shalldeceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound , the love of many shall wax cold . 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved
A WICKED AND ADULTEROUS GENERATION SEEKS A SIGN
Matt 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came , and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say , It will be fair weather: for the sky is red . 3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering . O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed. Matthew 16
Yet we come to Jesus and pray for signs and miracles. Jesus told the wicked and adulterous generation that the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah.
WHAT’S THE SIGN OF JONAH?
Jesus discussed Jonah in other areas of the scripture.
1. The sign of was Jesus going away for 3 days and rising again. Jonah was ‘as good as dead’ for 3 days, then ‘rose again’ preaching repentance.
Matthew 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
2. The sign of Jonah is a preacher telling people to repent.
Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: becausethey repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold , a greater than Jonas ishere.
Jesus said a greater than Jonah “IS HERE” present tense, even before He died. Jesus did the same thing that Jonah did, then he died and resurrected, and then sent hundreds more to do the same thing that Jonah did by filling them with the Holy Ghost.
WHY DID JESUS SAY THAT’S THE ONLY SIGN THEY GET?
They saw Lazarus raised from the dead. They still didn’t believe.
They heard about Jesus’s miracles; they still didn’t believe.
Jesus rose from dead; they still didn’t believe.
Jesus sent 12 more preachers telling them to repent because of the sign of Jonah; they still didn’t want to change what they thought, said, or did.
So even though there were multiple signs- there were signs of the times, signs & wonders, the only sign they got was the sign of Jonah. God said that he supernaturally closed their eyes and ears to the other signs until they received the sign of Jonah (Matthew 13:15, Acts 28:27). That’s actually the reason why he told parables, to hide the truth from those that wouldn’t repent.
But they still rejected it.
Don’t Reject the sign of Jonah.
The Lord can confirm His word with signs following, but He doesn’t confirm His signs with preaching following. You must repent before you can see the signs.
Repentance is the first priority. We love signs & wonders, God gives signs & wonders… but we don’t NEED signs & wonders.
We need repentance back to the heart of God. We need to change everything we are thinking, everything we are saying, and change everything we are doing.
We have people that don’t want to do that – but they want to see signs & wonders.
But when they see the sign of Jonah – a preacher preaching repentance, they wonder – “why won’t he shutup, he’s so negative?”
When they see the signs of destruction, famine and judgement, they wonder – “what’s the weather going to be like tomorrow on my way to work, hurry up and get to the forecast!”
What’s it going to take to bring the change? What is necessary to get people to humble themselves and pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, so that God can hear from heaven, forgive sins, and heal their land?
Probably a messenger with specific insight to show that what they are already doing is wrong. So that they can change what they think,change what they say, and change what they do.
When I put this blog together I found out about this video by Sho Baraka about real change… so I decided to add it to this blog.
Two themes I noticed in this song: was telling entertainers on the stage, educators and students in the classroom, and preachers in the church to CHANGE, because “nobody’s living it.”
Is there anybody living it?
Is there anybody willing to change what they think, change what they say and change what they do?
I really feel Sho here… but I will say this as an encouragement:
I believe God has a few people ‘living it’ today. These are not only the Nazarite lifestyles, but the Nazarite VOICES that will be the sign of the prophet Jonah and tell people to REPENT.
We spoke a message at the last iRepent event at Friday, about repenting from the pragmatism of Judas. Pragmatism is a philosophy that severely overdoes practical thinking – to the point of betraying God to do what we think will work. Judas’s pragmatism was the driving force of his betrayal of Christ. He wanted to get his will done his way. He wanted control. He ended up being instrumental in God’s will, but on the wrong side. “Woe to him by whom he is betrayed.”
We betray God’s purpose for our single lives when we live for ourselves. When we date around and do frivolous things that don’t produce disciples for Christ, or Godly marriages for the Kingdom of God. (1 Cor 7)
We betray God’s purpose for our families when we decide not to allow God to produce the Godly seed that He desires. We believe the lie that children are a loss, when God says they are a blessing, a profit. (Malach 2, Ps 127)
We betray God’s purpose for our ministries when we change our message to fit the people, instead of changing the people to fit the message, the Word of God. (Luke 3)
We betray God’s purpose for the Church when we live in isolation instead of breaking of bread and fellowship, doing life together. (Act 2)
We betray the purpose of God’s House when we allow it to be a place where thieves can hide, instead of a House of Prayer for every ethnic group. (John 2)
God still gets His purpose done anyway, but woe to the person used by satan to betray the will of God. God has enough mercy to cover us, but only if we turn our hearts completely back to Him.
Lookup The Negro Project and Margaret Sanger. When satan planted Darwinism and Eugenics into society, and used white racism and fear to try and destroy the black race, where did he send his messenger? To the Church. Margaret Sanger went to the Churches with a message of pragmatism, family planning, and birth control. She convinced black pastors that family planning was the way to prosperity and respect. They loosed it in the Church, and a few decades later, abortion was legalized in the government.
It was the Judas in us that is responsible for abortion. We betrayed God’s purpose for our families out of fear. Instead of God’s plan, and God’s control, we were duped into accepting our own planning and our own control. Satan got an inch (family planning and birth control) in the Church, and through our authority, he took a mile (legalized abortion) in the culture. This lie is so pervasive that, even now, we think God is going to give us too many children if we don’t prevent Him. God knows exactly how many children we need and how to provide for them. Several families in the bible only had 2, or 1 child. Some had 15. Each one is a profit, not a loss.
How much witty invention and financial provision will God release to those committed to His planning and under His control? The Duggars have 19 children, and have plenty of resources and businesses, 0 debt, plus they make nearly million dollars every season while the world watches them glorify God! Im not saying that everyone is called to be like Jim Bob or Michelle Duggar; but we must be open to giving God control. Us and the children the Lord has given us are for signs and wonders to the earth Isaiah 8:18. The disciples got the riches of the Holy Ghost. Judas got nothing.
We must repent for being responsible for allowing and loosing the mentality that is the seedbed of abortion. Let us never betray God’s purposes! It’s a waste of time to blame the government when all the responsiblity and authority has been given to us. Lord we turn our hearts back to you!
Make your way to Detroit on 11-11-11 for The Call. Pray with us. Join people all over Detroit that are fasting and praying in preparation for God to do something BIG in our city, nation, and world… NOW. Yes, NOW.
SoSpression Blog 