Revelation of Sonship: Part 1 – Sonship Revealed

Contents

False Friends

In linguistics, a false friend is a word shared by two languages that sounds the same but has different meanings. This can lead to confusion. The same could be true regarding words shared between different cultures. Abraham experienced the original gospel or good news of God, but was born more than 4,000 years ago into a culture that is completely different to our modern culture today. So, in order to avoid the possibility of false-friend confusion, we will be looking at the Book of Revelation, and what it reveals about sonship, through Abraham’s eyes, rather than through the lenses of modern culture and religious tradition. What is important to understand is not what we think now, but what was in the hearts and minds of those who heard the words of the Hebrew prophets and indeed Jesus first-hand. So, before we look at the Book of Revelation, we need to clear up some false-friend confusion regarding “word” and “spirit”.

Words are a form of communication. Natural words are spoken by natural breath. Natural breath carries the spoken words to the ears of the listener. The ear catches the sound and converts it into something that can be understood. The Hebrews were very practical people. They saw that God spoke just as people do. God has a mouth, and God speaks by His supernatural breath. God’s breath is the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s eternal life which dwells within Him. That is why it says in Psalm 33:6 (KJV) “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and by the breath of his mouth all their host”.

In Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel saw a vision of a valley full of dry bones. God spoke to Ezekiel the prophet and said in Ezekiel 37:9-10 (KJV) “Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, The Lord GOD says; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So, I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army”. The words wind and breath in this scripture are both the same in Hebrew, the word “ruach”. What came into these dead bodies was the breath of life, but in some translations of the Bible, the word used is “spirit”. Culturally, this could be a false friend. It may come as a surprise, but unlike the Hellenistic culture of the New Testament, within ancient Hebrew culture, there was no understanding of the Greek concept of “spirit”. In Hebrew, the word “ruach” is often translated “spirit” but in ancient Hebrew culture there was no such thing. The Hebrews equated the “ruach” or “spirit” of a man with the feelings and thoughts of someone’s personality. A personality that blows hot or cold depending upon the circumstances of life

In English, the word spirit comes from the Latin “spiritus” meaning “breath”. It is the root of English words such as inspire, expire, and respiration. On the Day of Pentecost, there was the “sound of a mighty wind from heaven”, in Latin this is “sonus spiritus vehementis” and the word “spiritus” is translated as “wind”. It goes on to say and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. In Latin, this is “Sanctus Spiritus” which means “Holy Breath”. In Latin, “spiritus” meant “breath, breathing, air, soul or life”, but it did not mean “spirit”. In the New Testament, the word commonly translated “spirit” is the Greek word “pneuma” which means “a current of air, blast of air or breeze”. It does not matter what words people use, so long as people understand what they meant to those who heard the words of Jesus and the Hebrew prophets first-hand. Religion tends to invent words with complicated conceptual meanings that fit in with the evolution of religious tradition. The ancient Hebrews had no religious words as such. Their words were based on things that were practically part of everyday life. Breath is the breath of life with which natural words are spoken. God’s breath is the supernatural breath of God’s eternal life that dwells within Him and with which God speaks. For Abraham, the word “holy” did not mean something that was ceremonially clean. It meant anything that was set apart, separate, special, different or extraordinary. From Abraham’s perspective, the words “Holy Spirit of God” could be better understood as the extraordinary supernatural breath of God’s eternal life. Within the culture of the Bible, there was a direct correlation between God’s word and the supernatural breath or Holy Spirit of God’s eternal life with which God spoke. The religion of tradition has divorced God’s word from God’s supernatural breath. What God has joined together, let not religious man separate.

Redemption

It says in Genesis 1:11 (KJV) “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so”. It is a divine law that a seed bears fruit after its father’s kind. If you think about an oak tree in winter, the oak tree could be called the house of the father. Hidden inside the house of the father tree are the acorn sons. During the growing season, by the breath of his life, the father tree speaks the word of his acorn sons. Hebraically, the acorn sons bear fruit after their father’s kind because the father oak lives within the hearts of the acorn sons. The acorn sons, when planted and grow, become the witness, testimony, or image of the life’s breath (or spirit) of the invisible father that dwells within their acorn hearts. They become the house of their father, and through them, the father lives on. He lives within their hearts to bear his fruit. If asked “what is your name”, the acorn son could say “my name is acorn, son of father oak, and by the breath of his life my father dwells within me, I am bearing fruit after my father’s kind”. This was the ancient Hebraic understanding of eternal life, the fathers lived on in the house of their sons. It says in Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. As a Father, God breathed into Adams’s heart the breath of Gods life and Adam became the original Son of God. In ancient Hebrew culture a soul was a breathing being, and just as trees bear fruit after their father’s kind, God himself dwelt within the heart of Adam. We know from 1 John 4 that “God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them”. That is how Adam was originally created: the paradise of God’s fatherhood dwelt within his heart to bring forth the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. It was the eternal purpose of God that Adam and Eve would establish the kingdom of God upon the earth by filling the earth with sons of God. Having hearts full of the supernatural life of God, the sons of God would bring glory to God by bearing the fruit of Father God who dwelt within their hearts in every aspect of life everywhere they went.

It is not clear exactly how long Adam and Eve lived in paradise with the heavenly paradise of God filling their hearts but unfortunately it did not last. The devil is the father of lies, and by lying he has built a kingdom that is diametrically opposed to the kingdom of God. The devil fashions himself as God and just as God wanted to populate the earth with sons in whose hearts God himself would live to bear the fruit of love, Satan wanted to become the god of this world. He wanted to populate the earth with sons in whose hearts his words of lying breath or evil spirits would live to kill, steal and destroy. Satan could not create a son, so he stole one. He tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden to eat forbidden fruit. They unwittingly submitted to the rule of the authority of the father of lies and gasped out the breath of God’s life from their hearts. God spoke and said to Adam that in effect, the goodness of God had been cursed out of the ground or personality of his heart. Adam had changed fathers. He was no longer the son of God, and instead became the seed of the serpent who would bear thorns and thistles, the fruit after his newly acquired evil father’s kind. In ancient Hebrew culture the first fruit was seen as the totality of the whole. The firstborn son of Adam and Eve was Cain, the Son of Man. We know from scripture that Cain was actually the first murderer upon planet earth. Sons bear fruit after their father’s kind because the father dwells within the heart of the son to bring forth his fruit. Because of the Fall, apart from the grace of God, everyone that has ever been born except Jesus to a greater or lesser extent shares the nature or natural life of Cain and if provoked have the capacity to bear evil fruit.

Within ancient Hebrew culture, redemption meant bringing something around full circle. So, in order to redeem fallen humanity back into the paradise of God’s fatherhood, in His great love, God Himself was born as a man. In Luke chapter 1, an angel appeared to Mary and said in Luke 1:35 “The Holy Spirit [or the supernatural breath of God’s life] shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you: therefore the holy one which shall be born of shall be called the Son of God”. From Abraham’s perspective, Jesus is the living word, the Son of God, because His is the perfect incarnation, reflection, image or embodiment of the supernatural and eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God. That is why Jesus said to Philip in John 14:10-11 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me”. From Abraham’s perspective, Jesus is in the Father because He is Yehovah God. The Father is in Jesus because as a man, Jesus is perfectly filled with the supernatural breath or Holy Spirit of God’s eternal life. In Matthew 10:20 Jesus actually described the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of your Father”. That is why Isaiah 9:6 “To us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”. God is One within ancient Hebrew culture.

In accordance with the will and foreknowledge of God, Jesus was actually crucified by the self-worshipping pride of fallen humanity. In Luke 23:46 just before Jesus died, he prayed “Father, into your hands I commit by spirit [“pneuma” or life’s breath in Greek], and having said this he gave forth his spirit [“ekpneo” or puffed or breathed forth the breath of his life in Greek]”. This was a direct parallel of the Fall of Adam and Eve. In his great love, Jesus came as the Son of Man or Cain, and on the cross, although he never sinned, he became like fallen humanity in his death. Jesus redeemed the effects of the Fall in his own body when the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood revived his body, and he rose from the dead. The word “revive” is from the Latin “re-viv-air” and means, “to live again”. This is the meaning of redemption. In John 20, on the day that Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples. Practically speaking, through Jesus’ death on the cross, Jesus’ disciples had died to living self-centred pride-poisoned “I am as god” lives. So, Jesus said in John 20:21 “Peace be to you: as my Father sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit [or the supernatural breath of God’s life]”. 

Within ancient Hebrew culture, a word was something that was either said or done by the breath of one’s life. The collection of their words and ways constituted their behaviour, character, or name. Jesus died the death of his disciples so that they could be redeemed and live again by Jesus breathing His life’s breath or the Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood into them. That is why Jesus said to Mary in John 20:17 “go to my brothers and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”. Jesus’ disciples were now the Sons of God together with Jesus because they shared in Jesus’ eternal life’s breath which came from His Father. Jesus’ disciples could be called by the name the “Sons of God” together with Jesus because they shared in his life’s breath or Holy Spirit. They bear the fruit of God because God Himself as a Father dwells within their hearts and enables them to bring forth the fruit of love after their Heavenly Father’s kind.

Two Generational Seed Lines

At the Fall, Adam and Eve became gods within themselves by disobeying God and eating forbidden fruit. They exchanged the truth of God’s love for them with their own love for themselves. The eyes of their hearts were blinded to God but were opened to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. They said within their hearts “I will decide for myself what is good or evil, I will decide for myself what is right or wrong”. They died to God by gasping out the breath of God’s life. They were no longer the Sons or reflections of God. Instead, within the realm of their own lives or psyche they became “I am as god” self-worshipping fallen living dust, the seed of the hateful hurtful serpent living natural puffed-up pride-poisoned lives which eventually died. However, the cause of the Fall was actually the serpent, the devil, and father of lies. Almighty God pronounced judgement upon the serpent for what he had done. It says in Genesis 3:14-15 “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel”.

There are two generational father-son seed lines or vines, one is cursed and the other blessed. The cursed generational father-son seed line represents the fatherhood of the father of lies, the sons or seed of the serpent who breathe his lying breaths and bear his image or reflection in the way that they behave. They are dead to God in their transgressions and sins and follow the ways of this world by naturally doing their own thing and going their own way. In their pride of their “I am as god” loveless hearts they decide for themselves what is good or evil, right, or wrong or true or false. The curse of the prince of the power of the air (the serpent or Satan) is at work within their life’s breath, character or name because they share in his evil spirit or breath of evil words, ways and behaviour. They bear fruit after their evil father’s kind. However, the darkness of the serpent’s generational seed line that came into human hearts as a result of the Fall actually became a canvas upon which the love, mercy and grace of God could shine. God did not leave mankind without the witness of a conscience. Those who follow their conscience and are inspired by God’s unmerited favour to show love, kindness and mercy to those around them, like Cornelius the centurion (see Acts 10), God will sow blessing into their hearts despite the natural darkness that dwells within them. Even if they do not acknowledge God as the source of blessing, this blessing of showing love to others keeps the serpent at bay. Remarkably, the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God is at work within the hearts of all men to a greater or lesser extent. Even within those who do not know Him, God is at work. Anything good that comes from people, through people, or to people is actually ultimately from the unmerited blessing, kindness, mercy and grace of God and not from of themselves. Without this, the world would truly be a dreadful place. In His great love, God put the devil on a leash. The devil cannot touch someone without the permission of both God and their “self”. It is those who agree with the devils lies and temptations, wilfully choose to do wrong and have their consciences seared as with a hot iron that grieve the Holy Spirit. This prevents God from working within them to accomplish His good purposes and enables the devil to have his wicked way within people’s hearts. God withdraws His blessing from those who repeatedly grieve His kind and loving heart. When this happens, people have to face the natural consequences or curse that breaking the divine commandments of God inevitably brings. This curse increases the strangle-hold of the serpent within their personalities and this strangle-hold can be passed down through the generations as a generational curse. Those who increasingly follow the ways of his world by living naturally pride-poisoned and selfish self-centred lives, their behaviour reveals that they are the sons of the serpent. The fruit of their lives reveals who their false father really is and by sowing to the flesh, one day from the flesh they will reap destruction.

The blessed generational father-son seed line represents the fatherhood of God, the sons or seed of God who bear His image or reflection, who have new loving hearts and who are alive to the wonderful love and blessing, life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. Through Jesus, they share in God’s eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit and follow the way of love by naturally doing God’s thing and going God’s way. The blessing of God Almighty, the eternal supernatural breath of God’s life or Holy Spirit, is at work within their life’s breath, character, personality or name. Just as a seed that is planted and grows bears fruit after its father’s kind, the Sons of God bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control because the eternal life of God as their Father dwells within their hearts by His life’s breath or Holy Spirit to bring forth His fruit. Their fruitful behaviour reveals that they are the Sons of God: it is the revelation of their sonship.

Within ancient Hebrew culture the strength of a son was his father and therefore one of the most important and valuable things in life was a father’s blessing, just as one of the most feared and damaging was a father’s curse. God had said to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 “And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been [will be] all families of the ground [“Adamah” or living dust of the sons of Adam]”. Within ancient Hebrew culture, blessing meant a gift brought upon bended knee which brought success and fulfilment. A curse meant anything that brought failure, disappointment, heartache, defeat, brokenness, misery, lack of fulfilment, disease and ultimately death. God had the special blessing of amazing grace for Abraham. Fathers have both natural and spiritual authority over their sons. Both blessing and curse pass down from father to son through the generational seed line. Abraham was chosen by the election of grace and called by invitation only out of his own natural father’s house generational seed line of curse into the amazing grace of being adopted into a Father-Son relationship with God. God promised to make Abraham’s character, personality, or name great and remarkably bless all the families of the whole world with the blessing of Pentecost (see Galatians 3:14, Acts 3:25) if Abraham left his natural father’s house and went to live in the land that God would show him. Hebraically, blood comes from the fathers, and according to Leviticus, the breath of life is in the blood (see Leviticus 17:11). The word of God’s blessing upon Abraham was a father’s blessing which foreshadowed the blood of Jesus (see John 6:56) by redeeming his blood and changing Abraham’s heart and life’s breath from the fallen egocentric self-filled “I am somebody” heart of his natural father, to the humble heart of a Son filled with the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. Because Abraham changed fathers by dying to everything that belonged to his natural life and fallen nature, he was no longer under the authority of his natural father’s “house”. Now he was part of the household of God and the sovereign blessing of God’s fatherhood was enabled to break every curse and “save” Abraham every day and in every way. Abraham bore the fruit of love after the blessing of his newly acquired Heavenly Father’s kind.

The Sons Of Promise

The people who lived within the land promised to Abraham were the Canaanites whose evil behaviour led them to lead cursed lives. So, Abraham sent his servants to find a wife for his son Isaac from his own family in Haran because he did not want Isaac to marry into a cursed generational seed line. In Genesis 27, Rebekah, Isaac’s wife persuaded her son Jacob to deceive Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing that Isaac wanted to give to his brother Esau. This was because Esau’s two Canaanite wives were making Rebekah’s life a misery. Jacob warned his mother that if discovered he would be seen by his father as a deceiver and end up inheriting a curse instead of a blessing. Such sinful deception was both unwise but also unnecessary. Esau had already disqualified himself from Abraham’s blessing by marrying these Canaanite women whom Rebecca described as daughters of Heth (meaning terror in Hebrew). Esau knew that Abraham had not allowed Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman because of how they behaved. When the time of blessing came, even though Isaac was deceived into thinking that Jacob was Esau, Isaac was divinely inspired to bless Jacob with the same father’s blessing that God gave to Abraham. Isaac said in Genesis 27:28-29 “God does give to thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and abundance of corn and wine; peoples serve thee, and nations bow themselves to thee, be thou mighty over thy brethren, and the sons of thy mother bow themselves to thee; those who curse thee are cursed, and those who bless thee are blessed”. Within ancient Hebrew culture names were based upon function and not form. Although Jacob had a difficult life, the blessing of God’s fatherhood eventually changed the name of the deceiving Jacob (“heel tripper”) to Israel because Jacob prevailed with both God and men. In Hebrew the word Israel means “Prince with God”. A prince was someone who was literally a “turner of heads”, meaning a person who turns the heads of the people to follow the king.

The Apostle Paul was continually sorrowful and greatly distressed that the nation of Israel as a whole had rejected the good news of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood that was poured out on the Day of Pentecost. It was the sovereign grace of this blessing that had enabled Abraham to change fathers centuries before from being a seed of the serpent into a Son of God. Paul said in Romans 9:6-9 (KJV) “Not as though the word of God has taken no effect [failed]. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, ‘At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son’”. Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren. Sarah had previously given her slave girl Hagar to Abraham for her to bear a surrogate son on Sarah’s behalf. Abraham’s naturally-conceived firstborn son was called Ishmael. However, God promised that the true sons of Abraham would come through Isaac, supernaturally-conceived by the unmerited, sovereign grace and mercy of God. Isaac’s wife Rebecca was also barren. Isaac prayed for Rebecca and she conceived. Paul said in Romans 9:10-13 (KJV) “… when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated’”. Just as God sovereignly chose Isaac to become Abraham’s true son, God sovereignly chose Jacob to change fathers and become the heir of the sovereign grace of Abraham’s blessing. That is why Paul said in Romans 11:5-6 (KJV) “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work”. Just as Ishmael was conceived naturally by Abraham and was born of a slave woman, those who have a naturally-conceived “work” of natural faith in the religion of the tradition of natural man remain slaves of sin. The religion of their tradition teaches that such sins are inevitable but also irrelevant because of their trust in the traditional understanding of redemption and life after death. However, Jesus said in John 8:34-36 (KJV) “Whosoever commits sin is the servant [slave] of sin. And the servant abides not in the house for ever: but the Son abides forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”. Those who are the Sons of promise chosen by the election of the unmerited grace and favour of God will find the gift of superabundant faith of Jesus supernaturally birthed within them. Peter said in Acts 2:38-39 (KJV) “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call”. For the true “called” Sons of God, these words of Peter, spoken on the Day of Pentecost, become true in their experience. This is the supernatural and sovereign blessing of Abraham promised by God to all the families of the earth in Genesis 12:3 (KJV) “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”.

The nation of Israel was meant to be their father’s corporate son by changing fathers and therefore having God’s unmerited blessing of Abraham which gifted them with the overcoming power to prevail and turn people’s heads to follow God as their Lord and King. This was to be done by wearing the crown of the anointing and the administration of blessing, love, kindness and mercy from the throne of grace, as it says in Isaiah 62:1-2 (KJV) “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns. And the Gentiles [nations] shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.” This was God’s original purpose for Israel – that the nation was to be so blessed by the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood indwelling their hearts it would become a light to the nations and a son or house or temple for His “name”, personality, character or behaviour. The nations were to see God’s incredible father’s blessing upon Israel or “Prince with God” so that they would also allow the blessing of God’s fatherhood or Holy Spirit to turn them from their wicked ways. This is so that they also could change fathers or generational seed line to become part of the corporate Israel – the Sons of God who walk and live, in love. Love is the heart of the “Torah” or signpost, or law. The first or preeminent commandment was the commandment to love because the Sons of God bear fruit after their Father’s kind. Love was the only thing that really mattered because everything else depends upon faith expressing itself through love. Without love, everything else is meaningless, because God is love. God’s true Sons live in love because God is love and God lives within them. They are called the Sons of God because they are reflections or the visible image of the invisible God in the way that the eternal life of the love of God within their hearts inspires them to behave.

The Blessing Rejected

It says in Psalm 53:2-3 “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that does good, no, not one”. Abraham was not seeking God, but God was seeking Abraham. Abraham was chosen by God to be the original recipient of God’s sovereign “grace” or blessing that turned his natural-born “I am as god” heart into the heart of a Son of the living God. Indeed, had God not revealed Himself to Abraham and sovereignly given him the promise of Sonship, Abraham would have remained a son of Terah his father in Ur of the Chaldeans. Even though they were naturally descended from Abraham and therefore claimed in John 8:41 to be, like Abraham, the Sons of God, ultimately as a nation, the Israelites they did not behave like blessed Abraham. They claimed to know God but by their actions they denied Him. Unlike Abraham, they did not come out of the cursed generational seed line of their own natural father’s house to experience the glorious, heart-changing and life-changing fatherhood of God. They rejected their corporate identity as the house, temple, promised land or sons or “Israel of God” and Yehovah God’s glorious purpose of being messengers of love to a fallen and dying world. In fact, Jesus said to them in John 8:42-44 (KJV) “If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it”. Instead of loving and living in the blessing of God, they rejected God’s blessing and loved and blessed only themselves. They remained part of the serpent’s generational seed line and hated the nations and peoples that God loved. Because they had the Law of Moses, which was in reality given to save Israel from sinners and not sinners from sinning, they considered themselves superior. That is why Jesus said to them in Matthew 12:33-37 “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”. Hebraically, the only way to make a tree good is to change its father because the life’s breath of the father dwells within the son or seed to bring forth its fruit. However, apart from God, this is an impossibility. Like everyone naturally descended from Adam, Abraham was originally a bad tree that bore bad fruit of the natural life that Abraham inherited from his forefathers. However, by an act of sovereign grace, in the obedience that comes from faith Abraham died to all that bound him and was therefore supernaturally enabled to change fathers. God made him into a good tree that bore good fruit. It is clear from what Jesus said that the judgement of God is based upon the fruit of relationship and not the faith of religion because a son or seed bears fruit after its father’s kind. The Scribes, Pharisees and Teachers of the Law claimed to be the Sons of Abraham and therefore the Sons of God (see John 8:41) but they did not behave like him. They had refused to change fathers and therefore rejected the blessing of Abraham. They continued to bear the evil fruit of the father of lies who dwelt within their hearts. That is why God says in Isaiah 65:1-3, 5 “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people [ethnic Israel], which walk in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; A people that provokes me to anger continually to my face…..which say [to the nations], ‘Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou’. These are a smoke [stench] in my nose, a fire that burns all day’”. They did not consider God practically worth knowing. They did not seek God with their whole hearts and said to those of the nations who were found by God “Keep away, I am holier than you”. They slammed shut the door of the kingdom of God in people’s faces after they themselves had refused to enter. However, God had already sovereignly chosen to allow Himself to be found by people who were not actually seeking Him, just like Father Abraham.

When Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch, it says Acts 13:44-48 (KJV) “And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles [nations]. For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles [nations], that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles [nations] heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed”. The Jews corporately refused to change fathers by leaving the wilderness of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life by humbling themselves to death to “I am as god” pride symbolised by baptism in the Jordan river. They therefore refused to enter the promised land of new everlasting or eternal life within the blessing of Abraham and anointing of Kings, and they hindered those who tried to. Indeed, because they bore the fruit of the father of lies who dwelt within their hearts, God’s name was slandered amongst the nations because of them. This was the opposite of what God originally intended. That is why Jesus described them in Revelation 2:9 as the synagogue of Satan, and that is why Isaiah said regarding the nations in Isaiah 56:6-7 (KJV) “Also the sons of the stranger [from the nations], that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keeps the sabbath from polluting it, and takes hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people”.

The Den of Thieves

Despite their claims of being the sons of Abraham, the leaders of ethnic Israel repeatedly and continually rejected their purpose of being the incarnation or dwelling place or temple or Sons of God to become a light to the nations. Unlike Father Abraham who had changed fathers and whose heart had become a temple, house or home of the presence and personality of the living God, the hearts of ethnic Israel had corporately become a den of thieves. The true nature of the Fall and Satan’s diabolical stranglehold upon their hearts continued to manifest itself in the way they that these religious leaders were inspired to behave. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-20 (KJV) “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore, by their fruit ye shall know them”. Whatever the false prophets of the religion of tradition may say, God’s final judgement is based upon behaviour not beliefs, fruit not faith. This is because sons bear fruit after their father’s kind. That is why John the Baptist said to these religious leaders in Matthew 3:8-9 (KJV) “Bring forth therefore fruit meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham”.

God Himself was born into that nation, in fulfilment of the promises that He as God had made to both Abraham and King David. Paul said in 1 Timothy 3:16 (KJV) “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory”. God came as a man under the Law to fulfil the law of love, born into ethnic Israel and in the place of ethnic Israel to establish the true Israel or Prince with God, as it says in Matthew 12:18-21 (KJV) “‘Lo, My servant, whom I did choose, My beloved, in whom My soul did delight, I will put My Spirit [or life’s breath] upon him, and judgment to the nations he shall declare, he shall not strive nor cry, nor shall any hear in the broad places his voice, a bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench, till he may put forth judgment to victory, and in his name shall nations hope.’” The leaders of Israel had made God’s temple in Jerusalem which was meant to be a house of prayer and a place of blessing for all nations into a den of thieves. It became a house of merchandise where the leaders traded for riches that were treasured or worshipped in the place of God. Those who came from the nations to the house of prayer to seek God, found themselves being robbed by the religious belief system of the day instituted by the Chief Priests, Scribes and Teachers of the Law who profited from such daylight robbery. Jesus, whose body was actually the real temple or house of God, went into what had become a den of thieves and drove the thieves or market-traders out with a whip. As it says in Psalm 69:7-12 (KJV) “Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thine house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards”. When challenged by the religious leaders, Jesus said to them in John 2:19-21 (KJV) “’Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body”.

The Pierced Heel

Yehovah God Himself had come to them in peace as the temple of Jesus’ body on a donkey of peace as His own Son to show the leaders of the people the light of the blessing of God’s fatherhood and the way of love. Jesus (meaning Yehovah Is Salvation in Hebrew, fully God and fully man) said to them in John 7:34 “Ye will seek me, and ye shall not find; and where I Am, ye are not able to come” and in John 8:23-24 “Ye are from beneath, I Am from above; ye are of this world, I Am not of this world; I said, therefore, to you, that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye may not believe that I Am, ye shall die in your sins”. The words “I Am” in Greek are “ego eimi” which is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Yah”, the name of God. The word “type” in English comes from the Greek “tupos” meaning a die that is struck, or a stamp, model, pattern or likeness. As types of Cain or Esau and not Isaac or Jacob, they were actually the corporate representatives of the whole of fallen humanity without God’s blessing and living in rebellion against God. Both Jesus and John the Baptist called these religious leaders a brood of vipers or snakes. As the seed of the serpent and not the Sons of God they bore the fruit of their evil father’s kind, the devil who dwelt within their hearts by his lying breaths or evil spirits. In an unlawful kangaroo court, they rejected their God and spat in His face, condemning the temple of his body to death with trumped-up charges of blasphemy. In Matthew 27:22-25 Pilate asked these leaders “‘What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?’ They all say to him, ‘Let be crucified!’ And the governor said, ‘Why, what evil did he?’ and they were crying out the more, saying, ‘Let be crucified.’ And Pilate having seen that it profited nothing, but rather a tumult is made, having taken water, he did wash the hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent from the blood of this righteous one; ye—ye shall see;’ and all the people answering said, ‘His blood is upon us, and upon our children!’”

The cross symbolised the full extent of the “I am as god”-inspired horror and tragedy of all sin, for all time. Remarkably, the cross that Jesus carried and died upon was the very cross, not only deserved by those who crucified him, but the very means through which they could be redeemed. The transgressors that Jesus interceded for were the very ones who were responsible for his excruciating death. It says in Psalm 14:2-4 (KJV) “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the LORD”. In Mark 10:18, and Luke 18:19 Jesus said that no one is good except the One God. On the Day of Pentecost, God, speaking prophetically through Peter, held everyone present accountable for Jesus’ death. This is because everyone apart from Jesus was the seed of the serpent, and in the absence of the grace of the change-of-heart blessing of God’s fatherhood, everyone’s “I am as god” heart was capable of such a despicable act. That is why Peter said to the “men of Israel” in Acts 3:13-15 “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, did glorify His child Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, he having given judgment to release him, and ye the Holy and Righteous One did deny, and desired a man—a murderer—to be granted to you, and the Prince of the life ye did kill, whom God did raise out of the dead, of which we are witnesses”. The cross reveals the full extent of the diabolical murderous loveless depravity that came into human hearts when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and became “as gods” by partnering with the devil to eat forbidden fruit. More importantly the cross reveals the full extent of God’s willingness to completely forgive and lovingly restore those who truly repent from this pride-poisoned heart attitude and rebellious lifestyle inspired by the father of lies. It shows the astronomical price that God, in His great love, was personally willing to pay in order to redeem the Sons of God full circle from being the seed of the serpent back into the paradise of God’s fatherhood.

The Chief Priests, Scribes, Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, the elders and representatives of the nation of Israel who knew the scriptures, had rejected the blessing of Abraham and as a whole could see nothing wrong with the temple or den of thieves of the old wineskins of the fallen nature of their egocentric pride-poisoned hateful hearts. As the seed of Eve, Jesus’ heel was pierced by the nails of the cross, instigated by the seed of the serpent. By condemning to death the only truly innocent man that ever lived, these unrepentant leaders of ethnic Israel passed judgement upon themselves, their sons, and the devil as their diabolical and corporate head. Their behaviour revealed the true nature of the natural life of their hearts by repeatedly refusing to repent and allow Jesus to drive out Satan’s market-traders, lying breaths or demons or thieves from the temple of their hearts. This prevented their hearts from being made into new wineskins filled with Abraham’s Pentecostal blessing, personality, eternal life’s breath, or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood originally promised to Father Abraham and his heir in Genesis 12:1-3. By cursing Jesus the Son of Abraham and the Son of David, they themselves came under the curse of Genesis 12:3 and Genesis 27:29. Within ancient Hebrew culture, both Abraham’s and David’s Yehovah God was also their son Jesus (Yehoshua), their hope of a better resurrection and the heir of their blessing and anointing poured out on the Day of Pentecost upon the true Israel (or Isaac or Sons), temple or house of God.

The Blessing of Election

Jesus said that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God speaks His almighty word by the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit that dwells within Him. That is why Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:14-16 “For very near unto thee is the word, in thy mouth, and in thy heart—to do it. See, I have set before thee to-day life and good, and death and evil, in that I am commanding thee to-day to love Yehovah thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, and His statutes, and His judgments; and thou has lived and multiplied, and Yehovah thy God has blessed thee in the land whither thou art going in to possess it”. The leaders of Israel did not live by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God. Instead, in the pride of their puffed-up hearts they lived natural lives based upon the natural words spoken by the natural breath of natural man. They had a zeal for God, but it was based on natural education and not supernatural revelation. That is why Paul said in Romans 11:1-4 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For them being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes”. From Abraham’s perspective, true faith is being inspired to catch the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood within the breathings of one’s personality and changing fathers to become like Jesus. Hebraically, this is what the righteousness of God (or being “in Jesus”) really means. That is why Jesus said in John 16:13-15 “… when He may come—the Spirit of truth—He will guide you to all the truth, for He will not speak from Himself, but as many things as He will hear He will speak, and the coming things He will tell you; He will glorify me, because of mine He will take, and will tell to you. ‘All things, as many as the Father hath, are mine; because of this I said, that of mine He will take, and will tell to you”. In His great mercy, Almighty God fathered everything that was lost at the Fall into the heart of Jesus, fully man but also fully God. Those who are inspired to believe, establish the truth of the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood within the breathings of their personality. This justifies their hearts and changes their nature from the seed of the serpent to become the Sons of God, just like Jesus. They become the true Israel of God together with, or within Him. As the Sons of God, they bear the fruit after their Father’s kind, the Father who dwells within their hearts.

Paul says in Romans 9:21-26 “Has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make the one vessel to honour, and the one to dishonour? And if God, willing to show the wrath and to make known His power, did endure, in much long suffering, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of kindness, that He before prepared for glory, whom also He did call—us—not only out of Jews, but also out of nations, as also in Hosea He says, ‘I will call what is not My people—My people; and her not beloved—Beloved, and it shall be—in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not My people; there they shall be called Sons of the living God.’” The people that were present on the Day of Pentecost were all made out of the same lump of clay and as the seed of the serpent, all had been held by God as corporately guilty of Jesus death. However, there were many “vessels of kindness” who were cut to the heart when they heard Peter’s words as he accused them of rejecting and murdering the Prince of Life and asking for a murderer to be set free. In Acts 2 they asked, “Brothers, what should we do”. Peter responded by saying in Acts 2:28-39 (KJV) “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call”. The paradise of God’s fatherhood that was lost at the Fall was poured out on the true Sons or Israel of God on the Day of Pentecost. This redeemed their hearts and turned them from their naturally-wicked ways (see Acts 3:25-26). Thousands of people from ethnic Israel were sovereignly chosen to the praise of God’s glorious grace to respond to God by repenting and being baptised. They changed fathers and became freely accepted in the Beloved (see Ephesians 1:6). On that glorious day they became the Sons of the Living God, the assurance of sonship promised centuries before now fulfilled. .

However, Chief Priests, Scribes and Teachers of the Law who mocked Jesus as he hung dying on the cross were clearly “vessels of wrath fitted for destruction”. Stephen said to these same leaders of the people in Acts 7:48-53 “‘But the Most High in sanctuaries made with hands doth not dwell, according as the prophet said: The heaven is My throne, and the earth My footstool; what house will ye build to Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? has not My hand made all these things? ‘Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and in ears! ye do always the Holy Spirit resist; as your fathers—also ye; which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed those who declared before about the coming of the Righteous One, of whom now ye betrayers and murderers have become, who received the law by arrangement of messengers, and did not keep it’”. By continuing to embrace the sins of hypocrisy and rebellion against the Law of Moses they rejected the blessing of Abraham. The life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood did not dwell within the temple of the hearts and as such their hearts had remained a den of thieves. The Apostle Paul was actually greatly distressed and experienced continual sorrow that these leaders of Israel had rejected their God and His glorious purpose for their lives. He said in Romans 9:3-5 (KJV) “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren [ethnic Israel], my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers [the Patriarchs], and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ [the Anointed One] came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen”. The leaders of Israel knew all about their national history. They knew about how God had adopted Abraham with a father’s blessing, the revelation of God’s shekinah glory, the covenants of promise, the giving of the Law of Moses and the promises spoken by the Hebrew prophets. Yet they took this sovereign grace for granted and crucified their God and King when He personally visited them in the person of Jesus..

Paul was concerned that Jesus’ crucifixion at the hands of wicked men, but instigated by the leaders of ethnic Israel, and their rejection of the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, seemed to indicate that the promises and Word of God had somehow failed. However, Paul said in Romans 9:6-13 “Not as though the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, ‘At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son’. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated’”. Just as God sovereignly chose to adopt Abraham as His son, God also sovereignly chose Jacob and not Esau. Esau had naturally taken it for granted that the blessing of his fathers Isaac, and Abraham would naturally be his no matter what. When Esau sought the blessing of Isaac his father, he was rejected. His behaviour and the fruit of his life disqualified him from blessing and he only had himself to blame. Jacob’s behaviour qualified him to receive the blessing, but he only had God to thank. The amazing grace and unmerited favour of God cannot be taken for granted. The true Israel of God will be saved but the true Israel of God is not those whose boast is based upon genealogy, religious observance, conceptual faith, or belief in the religion of their tradition. Instead, it is humbly based upon behaviour inspired by the unmerited and amazing sovereign grace of God. Seeds or sons bear fruit after the life of their father’s kind, either the bad fruit of the natural fallen life of man or the good fruit of the supernatural eternal life of God. .

Paul said in Romans 11:2-7 “God has not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture says of Elijah? how he made intercession to God against Israel, saying, ‘Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dug down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what said the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel has not obtained that which he sought for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded”. Just as the grace of God blessed Abraham with a change of father and “called him out” of his natural father’s house into the promised land of the blessing of God’s fatherhood, a remnant was chosen (the “eklektos” in Greek, the elect that God chosen beforehand to become the person of His Son) by the election of grace out from within ethnic Israel. They became the “ecclesia” or called-out ones of God by receiving the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood poured out on the Day of Pentecost, just like Abraham had received centuries before. .

In His great mercy, God used Israel’s rejection of Him as their God and King to bring His sovereign heart-changing blessing of Abraham and the eternal life of the election of grace to the nations. That is why Paul says in Romans 11:11-15 “Did they stumble that they might fall? let it not be! but by their fall the salvation is to the nations, to arouse them to jealousy; and if the fall of them is the riches of a world, and the diminution of them the riches of nations, how much more the fulness of them? For to you I speak—to the nations—inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, my ministration I do glorify; if by any means I shall arouse to jealousy mine own flesh, and shall save some of them, for if the casting away of them is a reconciliation of the world, what the reception—if not life out of the dead?”. That is why in Ephesians 3:5-6 (KJV) “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles [nations] should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel”. Indeed, in Acts Chapter 11, the members of the Early Church were amazed that the Holy Spirit or life’s breath of God’s fatherhood, had been poured out upon Cornelius the centurion and his household. That is why Peter said in Acts 11:15:18 “… And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptised with water; but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, ‘Then God has also to the Gentiles [nations] granted repentance unto life’”. The life that is mentioned here is the “eternal life” of a different Father. That is why John said in John 10:27-30 (KJV) “He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself: he that believes not God has made him a liar; because he believes not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life”. This eternal life was not life after death. Hebraically, natural life was passed down from father to son, and through this “natural life”, the Hebrew fathers had an inheritance within the hearts or “house” of their sons. Eternal life was the “supernatural” eternal life of Almighty God having an inheritance with the hearts of His Sons. The supernatural eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of Father God was entirely different from the natural breath of life that Jesus’ disciples had inherited from their earthly fathers.

The True Israel of God

It is not those who are naturally descended from Abraham and imagine that, because of their national history, ethnic identity or religious observances, they are the true Israel or chosen people of God. Israel came under the judgement of God because in the pride of their fallen “I am as god” hearts they took His election of them being the chosen people of God for granted. They then rejected the grace, mercy and blessing originally given sovereignly by God to Abraham that would have redeemed their fallen hearts and qualified them for the prize of being eternally filled with the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. In this they could have become the true Israel or corporate City or Son of God who would eternally bear the fruit of Father God who dwelt within their hearts by His eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit. Instead, they imagined that they were somehow privileged or protected by the rite of circumcision, that they were God’s covenant people and that their religious observances of their law, and their religious beliefs covered-over or atoned for anything that could be considered the evil fruit of bad behaviour. That is why Paul says in Romans 9:30-33 “What, then, shall we say? that nations who are not pursuing righteousness did attain to righteousness, and righteousness that is of faith, and Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, at a law of righteousness did not arrive; wherefore? because—not by faith, but as by works of law; for they did stumble at the stone of stumbling, according as it has been written, ‘Lo, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; and everyone who is believing thereon shall not be ashamed’”. Israel was too proud to accept that actually, apart from the sovereign grace of Abraham’s Pentecostal blessing of the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood, it was impossible for them to fulfil the righteous requirements of the Law of Moses. In reality, in the hardness of their pride-poisoned hearts, they had despised the kindness and mercy of God to such an extent that He had removed His blessing from their hearts completely. That is why Paul said in Romans 2:4-6 “Or despise thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.”

It is not those who have been taught by the religion of their tradition to believe or claim that God is their “Father” but then by their actions deny Him, who are the true Israel or chosen people of God. Within ancient Hebrew culture, a true son is the reflection or image of his father by behaving like him and bearing his fruit. That is why Paul says in Ephesians 5:1-6 “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becomes saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience”.

It is not those who have been taught by the religion of their tradition to puff themselves up with the knowledge about “grace” or “election” and vaunt their loveless hearts over the nation of ethnic Israel or indeed anyone else, that are the true Israel of God. That is why Paul says in Romans 11:18-23 (KJV) “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bear not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graft in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou stand by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again”. 

It is not those who shackle the free-will of Almighty God to be God with the chains of their own sense of morality, lording it over God with their own understanding of what is right or wrong, fair or unfair, that are the true Israel of God. Paul said in Romans 9:14-18 “What, then, shall we say? unrighteousness is with God? let it not be! For to Moses He said, ‘I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion;’ so, then—not of him who is willing, nor of him who is running, but of God who is doing kindness: for the Writing said to Pharaoh—’For this very thing I did raise thee up, that I might show in thee My power, and that My name might be declared in all the land;’ so, then, to whom He wills, He does kindness, and to whom He wills, He does harden”. The religion of tradition binds the grace of God and attempts to rob God of His sovereign free-will to be God, for God to show kindness and mercy to those whom He will and to harden those whom He will harden. It attempts to force God into becoming a “faith” puppet who is only allowed to move and bless when the religion of tradition “believes” that it has pulled the traditionally-correct moral “God strings”.

It is not those that claim to be the unrivalled masters of their own destiny that are the true Israel of God. It says, regarding Jesus in Acts 13:47-49 “’I have set thee for a light of nations—for thy being for salvation unto the end of the earth.’  And the nations hearing were glad, and were glorifying the word of the Lord, and did believe—as many as were appointed to life age-during [eternal life]; and the word of the Lord was spread abroad through all the region”. Jesus prayed to God in John 17:1-2, 6 “Father, the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, according as Thou did give to him authority over all flesh, that—all that Thou has given to him—he may give to them life age-during [eternal life]… I did manifest Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given to me out of the world; Thine they were, and to me Thou hast given them, and Thy word they have kept”. As far as Jesus is concerned, His disciples belonged to God and not to themselves. God gave them to Jesus and Jesus gave to them “eternal life”. Jesus’ disciples were sovereignly given by their Heavenly Father to Jesus out of the cursed generational seed line that formed the world. That is why John said in 1 John 3:13-15 (KJV) “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that does not love his brother abides in death. Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him”. God’s election of sovereign grace is a mystery to the religion of tradition but not to Abraham and his true sons of promise. Jesus himself said in John 6:37,44 “All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out…No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day”. Naturally speaking, anyone can come to Jesus, but only those who supernaturally enter into a father-son relationship with God are sovereignly chosen by the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood to do so. Jesus said in Matthew 22:14 (KJV) “For many are called, but few are chosen”. Those that are truly chosen to follow Jesus do not congratulate themselves every day for being so spiritually superior that God chose them to be adopted as His Son, nor are they eternally grateful to themselves for being so “clever” as to choose to follow Jesus. Nor do they believe that God played second fiddle by choosing them only after they first chose Him. Nor do they believe that God is only allowed to choose those who choose to be chosen. Rather, they are “amazed by grace” and echo the words that Paul spoke in Romans 11:33-36 “O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways! for who did know the mind of the Lord? or who did become His counsellor? or who did first give to Him, and it shall be given back to him again? because of Him, and through Him, and to Him are the all things; to Him is the glory—to the ages. Amen”.

The true Israel, “ecclesia” or “called out ones” or Sons of God are those to whom God sovereignly chooses to show great kindness. The true Israel of God are those who humbly release God from the chains of their own “I am as god” hearts and humble themselves under God’s mighty hand so that He may sovereignly lift them up in due time. The true Israel of God includes “strangers” from the nations, like Cornelius the centurion, who are so sovereignly blessed by the fatherhood of God that their stony loveless hearts are circumcised (see Deuteronomy 30:6) to naturally keep and guard the real law of loving Yehovah their God with all of their hearts, and loving their neighbour as themselves, whatever their ethnic origin or religious observances may be. That is why Paul said Romans 2:28-29, 3:29-30 “For he [man] is not a Jew who is so outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in flesh; but a Jew is he who is so inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, of which the praise is not of men, but of God……is God of Jews only is He, and not also of nations? yes, also of nations; since One is God who shall declare righteous the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through the [same] faith”.

Paul says in Romans 8:12-17 “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together”. The Apostle Paul clearly taught on the sovereign grace of election, but his eyes were not so blinkered by the religion of tradition that he believed that, having been chosen by the election of grace, morally-wrong behaviour that rejected the sovereign “grace” of living a changed life and instead bore the wicked fruit of the serpent, was now acceptable. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “… have ye not known that those running in a race—all indeed run, but one doth receive the prize? so run ye, that ye may obtain; and everyone who is striving, is in all things temperate; these, indeed, then, that a corruptible crown they may receive, but we an incorruptible; I, therefore, thus run, not as uncertainly, thus I fight, as not beating air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into servitude, lest by any means, having preached to others—I myself may become disapproved.” Just as Peter taught that those who had obtained like precious faith to become the true followers of Jesus needed to make every effort to make their calling and election sure (see 2 Peter 1:5-10), Paul was aware that despite being chosen by the election of grace, “unrestrained flesh” that rejected this sovereign grace would rob him of his eternal inheritance in God because the blessing of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood “is” the inheritance. That is why Paul said in Romans 8:3-4 “for what the law was not able to do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, His own Son having sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, did condemn the sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”. Love is the fulfilment of the Law because God is love. Those who live in love live in God and God lives within them. For those who live in love, there is no need for Law. The Sons of God bear fruit after their Heavenly Father’s kind.

John says in 1 John 3:9 “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother”. In the cold light of day, heartfelt behaviour is the true revelation of sonship. Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit and that out of the abundance of the heart, people speak and live their lives. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection. How people live from their heart reveals whether they are the seed of the serpent, or the Sons of God. They live either natural fallen lives that they inherit from their fallen fathers, or they live overcoming eternal life that they receive from the Pentecostal blessing of God’s fatherhood.

The Unbelief of Israel

The nation of ethnic Israel as a whole took the grace and blessing of God for granted. They knew the scriptures, they knew about the Patriarchs, slavery in Egypt, the Passover, wanderings in the desert and their glorious entry into the Promised Land. However, they did not listen to the Law and the Prophets and did not take their message and call to repentance to heart. They became complacent, never changed fathers, and never repented from this orphan-hearted self-filled pride and stubborn stiff-necked and unrepentant unbelieving rebellious national self-idolatry. They remained part of the “I am as god” serpent’s generational seed line and loved their own culture, traditions and corporate natural ethic identity, but actually hated and rejected the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the peoples or nations that God loved. They may have honoured Yehovah God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. In the arrogance of their “I am” hearts they refused to contemplate even for a moment the possibility that many of God’s judgements were actually a merciful Father’s corrective discipline. That is why Paul said in Thessalonians 2:13-16 “Because of this also, we—we do give thanks to God continually, that, having received the word of hearing from us of God, ye accepted, not the word of man, but as it is truly, the word of God, who also does work in you who believe; for ye became imitators, brethren, of the assemblies of God that are in Judea in Christ Jesus, because such things ye suffered, even ye, from your own countrymen, as also they from the Jews, who did both put to death the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and did persecute us, and God they are not pleasing, and to all men are contrary, forbidding us to speak to the nations that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always, but the anger did come upon them—to the end!”

With their super-spiritual egos that were the size of massive barrage balloons, the leaders of Israel refused to allow God to burst the bubble of their superior “I’m-better-than-you” national pride and self-idolatry. Instead they chose to ignore God’s fatherly discipline, continuing on a path that was hell-bent on destruction. That is why it says in Isaiah 65:15 (KJV) “And ye shall leave your name [ethnic Israel] for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name [the ecclesia]”. As the Good Shepherd and original King of Israel Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said in Luke 13:34-35 (KJV) “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen does gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.…”. Jesus said to these egocentric hypocrites in Matthew 21:42-44 (KJV) “Did ye never read in the scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?’ Therefore, say I unto you, ‘The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation [the ecclesia] bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder [dust]’”. 

In the years following the tragic destruction of Herod’s Temple in AD 70, in arrogant conceit, the Pharisees who survived God’s judgements, falsely fabricated the religious pretence of Rabbinic Judaism. They simply replaced the Temple with the Torah, the sacrifices with offerings of prayers and gifts, and the priests with themselves (as the Rabbis). As play-acting hypocrites, and seed of the serpent who dwelt richly within the breathings of their corporate personality they retained centre stage. They continued to trumpet their own false and completely man-made oral traditions with a fanfare of preposterous conceit, sidestepping the commandments of God with an audacity of military two-faced ballroom precision. Their conceited pride-enslaved lives went on mocking God and sowing the seeds of rebellion against the God of their fathers, with “business as usual” as if nothing had happened. Jesus was not exaggerating when he said in Mark 12:38-40 (KJV) “Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation [punished most severely]”. The day of punishment is coming, the “punisher” will be revealed before Jesus returns. However, they are not the true Israel of God. God will keep His promise and when Jesus does return, the true Israel of God will be delivered. That is why Paul says in Romans 11:25-27 “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins”. This deliverance was originally experienced by Abraham and was poured out upon the true Israel or Sons of God on the Day of Pentecost. That is why Peter said to the leaders of Israel in Acts 3:25-26 (KJV) “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, ‘And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed’. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his evil ways”. It was the blessing of God’s fatherhood that redeemed people’s hearts. This enabled them to change fathers and this turned them from their wicked ways from the inside out.

The Crushed Head

After the Fall, God cursed the serpent, promising to put hatred between the woman and the serpent, between the seed or son of the woman and the seed or sons of the destroying serpent. God promised that the serpent’s seed would strike the heel of the woman’s seed, but that the seed or son of the woman would crush his head. Scripture is clear that through the piercing of Jesus’ heel, his death on the cross and his resurrection, the father of lies and his kingdom in darkness has been legally defeated. The Sons of God are the called-out ones or “ecclesia”. Like Abraham, they are called out of the generational seed line, authority and curse of the father of lies, and into the Fatherhood of God. As they follow Jesus day by day and making straight the way of love the glorious promises of God are fulfilled within their experience. As Sons of God together with Him, they participate in His divine nature through the victorious crown of the anointing and the blessing of the living word of the Holy Spirit or eternal life’s breath of God’s fatherhood lost at the Fall being resurrected within them. The fruit of their lives and the way they are inspired to behave, reveals their true identity as the Sons of God and proves that for them, the devil has been truly defeated. However, in the world at large, the head of the serpent has not yet been fully crushed. In Greek, the word revelation is “apokalupto” which means to take off the cover, uncover or reveal. In Hebrew, the equivalent word is “gelah” which means literally to raise, lift off or reveal. The cross revealed the absolute depravity and hypocrisy of the arrogance and conceit of the serpent’s established religious order and the serpent’s seed or sons, who with the help of wicked hands pierced Jesus’ heel and murdered their own deliverer, saviour, God and King. At the same time the cross revealed the incredible love of God in the person of Jesus, humbling himself to death and dying even for those who murdered him.

Jesus said in Mark 4, first the blade, then the ear, then the full head of fruit upon the ear. Hatred is the blade or first-fruit of the full-headed fruit of murder, lust the blade or first-fruit of the full-headed fruit of adultery. In the same way, corporately, the “type” of Cain was the seed of the serpent, first-fruit, or blade of a man with a fallen and puffed-up “I am as god” pride-poisoned over-inflated opinion of himself. The whole of history is littered with tragedy, heartache and misery caused by these belial-hearted sons of destruction and inhabitants of the Sin-City of Babylon that fight for self-exaltation and the satisfaction of their “as god” pride-poisoned hatred and lusts. Just as the unrepentant murdering Cain was the first-fruit or ear, one day the full head of fruit will come. This man and ultimate sinful Cain with an ego the size of the planet Jupiter is called amongst other things the Little Horn, Assyrian, Chaldean, Abomination of Desolation, Oppressor, Raiser of Taxes, Dictator, Man of Sin or Lawlessness, Rebellious One, Son of Belial, Son of Destruction, Beast and Antichrist. The word “antichrist” is from the Greek “antichristos” which means to replace or oppose the Christ, Messiah or Anointed One. The word “antichrist” describes the name, character, and behaviour of those whose self-trusting hearts are filled with pride-poisoned self-centred arrogant wickedness. Those who behave like that are a law unto themselves and are types of sons of Belial, and exact opposite of Jesus. In their hearts they proclaim themselves “as gods” and they are a foreshadowing or type of the actual Antichrist who really does proclaim himself as “god” on a global and international scale, the coming of whom is predicted in scripture, and in particular the Book of Daniel, many times. In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul is clear that before Jesus returns, the Antichrist or Man of Lawlessness must be revealed. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 he said “…let not any one deceive you in any manner, because—if the falling away may not come first, and the man of sin be revealed—the son of the destruction, who is opposing and is raising himself up above all called God or worshipped, so that he in the sanctuary of God as God hath sat down, shewing himself off that he is God— the day doth not come”. This man will have a hatred for all men, but he will have a particularly vengeful streak and diabolical hatred towards Israel. Israel will become a key part of his strategy of biblical world domination and anyone or anything that stands in his way will be annihilated. As a nation, having crucified Jesus as the heir of Abraham’s blessing and the Son of David, they will have no one to protect them. However, the promises of God will not fail. God is not vengeful or vindictive. The true Israel of God will one day be saved.

Ever since the Fall people have been dabbling in darkness, partnering or trading with the father of lies in an attempt to find fulfilment or satisfaction from eating the cursed fruit of things that are morally wrong. Doing so brings misery and brokenness into their hearts, the lives of others and grieves the heart of God. For many, Satan’s promise of pleasure is appealing, and they consider God as withholding and stopping them from having a good time. The truth is that if there is anything that God does not want people to have, these things are not worth having. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 (KJV) “Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”. Jesus currently rules in the unseen realms. God restrains the wicked forces of darkness and keeps them on a leash by breathing words of kindness and love into the hearts of men. As such no one really knows how bad the devil really is, even the devil hides his true murderous nature from those who are doing business and trading with him. Just before Jesus returns, with a heavy heart, God will remove the restraint that is holding back the forces of darkness to reveal them in their true light. That is why Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:5-8 “Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, these things I said to you? and now, what is keeping down ye have known, for his being revealed in his own time, for the secret of the lawlessness does already work, only he who is keeping down now will hinder —till he may be out of the way, and then shall be revealed the Lawless One, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the manifestation of his presence”. Jesus will then be revealed with the witnesses or clouds of the Sons of God and will crush the head of the serpent and all who partnered with him to attempt to make his dream of apostate divinity and the tyranny of his biblical world domination come true. When He returns with his Bride, Jesus will destroy the armies of the beast at the Battle of Armageddon. This is the Day of Judgement. He will bind the forces of darkness for a period (symbolically 1,000 years), and the world will experience the direct rule of Jesus as the Son of David and his Bride for this period on planet earth without the interference of the devil and his messengers or words of demonic lying breaths. This is what the ancients had hoped for, this was the original Messianic hope. At the final end of the ages, Satan, as God’s garbage-collector will be released to sift out the rebellious garbage from amongst the peoples of the earth. These are those who prefer the rule of Satan to the rule of Jesus, and these are the ones who will finally be destroyed together with the father of their rebellion. This is described in detail in the Book of Revelation and its Old Testament counterpart, the Book of Daniel.

[Go to Start] [Go to Part 2]