2019 - A Year When Everything Changed

I have tried to refrain from offering a message about a particular year. However, this morning I heard something in my mind, which I believe to be from the spirit of the Lord:

“2019 will be remembered as the year when everything changed.”

When I heard this, I was caught up in an inner vision. I saw something like a Déjà vu of history in which a year in man’s chronicles was marked as a year of radical changes, the fusion of which would lead to an ensuing eruption of events, imposed upon by the mighty hand of God to unravel the illusionary happy state of mankind. Upon reflection, the years 1908 and 1936 stood out for me in particular.

For God’s Remnant - A Year of Awe

It is time to depart and it is time to plant and build.

This will be a year remembered as the time we entered the refuge of God. This refuge is as much spiritual as it is practical. Two pertinent examples are the ark of Noah and the garden of Eden. Due to the purpose of this writing, I will only briefly explain the following: The ark is more applicable to the bridal company and the garden is more so for the son company. Symbolically, these represent two different graces, those being the baptism of water and the baptism of fire, the sending and the receiving.

We must depart from the old in order to be planted in the new. This has always been a challenge for the unprepared. But for those who are, it is most thrilling and rewarding as they are now allowed to enter into the fulfillment of the promises of God. 2019 (Hebrew 5779) will be a year of awe.

As a remnant of God’s people, we have been entrusted with a particular calling. This calling is to restore the order or the culture of the Household of God the Father and the Kingdom of Christ Jesus in the midst of mankind thereby introducing the final rehearsal of God’s banquet table for the Bridal Age. We are now entering a time of the great favor and divine grace (divine empowerment) of God.

“Behold, I have made EVERYTHING new!”

We can expect to see the new formation of God’s people who are being orchestrated by God Almighty Himself to be a people of understanding, aligning ourselves as the visible embodiment of the Body of Christ on earth. God the Father will “permit or approve us” to be a better example of the “full stature” of Christ under His Headship or “the mind of Christ”. In this time of great confusion and lawlessness, God will lay out His table of goodness upon which divine love (from brotherly love to Godly love) and divine wisdom (from revelation to manifestation) will be graced and “glorified”. (Isa. 8-9)

The ancient foundation will be restored. This means the ministry of the Order of Melchizedek, entrusted to a NEW priesthood of the sons of God, for such a time as this, will be put into effect. “The wise will teach many”. The son company will be entrusted with the wisdom and grace to purify the bridal company for the Lord through the "ministry of the Word of God”. This will then become the greatest display of the mercy, grace, righteousness and justice of God in human history prior to the coming Kingdom of Christ Jesus. “The glory of the latter house will be greater than the former”. How true!

With this, some divine contrasts will also be more readily witnessed:

sons of lawlessness v.s. sons of righteousness,

self-willed man (human passion and human interest) v.s. disciplined son-servants of divine love and divine calling,

convoluted speculations and vain imaginations of man v.s. the pure and plain wisdoms and revelations of God,

etc...

Jeremiah 1:9–10 (NASB95)

⁹ Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. ¹⁰ “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant.”

Malachi 3:16–18 (NASB95)

¹⁶ Then those who feared (who served God in reverence and awe) the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance (book or account of reward and judgment) was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem (honor Him as the first and the highest place of their heart) His name. ¹⁷ “They will be Mine (members of God’s household, priests as the firstborn sons),” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare (make perfect, exalt, glorify or endow with honor) My own possession, and I will spare (make holy, set apart as special or particular) them as a man spares (honor or exalt, preserve for the best) his own son who serves (worship or labor for) him.” ¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

John 5:39–47 (NASB95)

³⁹ “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify (prove to be true and real) about Me; ⁴⁰ and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life (life as a son of God). ⁴¹ “I do not receive glory (honor) from men; ⁴² but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. ⁴³ “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. ⁴⁴ “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? ⁴⁵ “Do not think that I will accuse (disqualify, prove to be unfit or not real) you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope (security in their current standing with God and in their future salvation from God) . ⁴⁶ “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words (teachings)?”

Matthew 16:13–23 (NASB95)

¹³ Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock (sonship in Jesus Christ from God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit) I will build My church (my elected ones, sons that are approved and appointed by God, or rather genuine disciples of Jesus Christ); and the gates of Hades will not overpower it ('the increase of His government will of no end'). ¹⁹ “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. (Acting as a holy priesthood serving under our high priest Jesus Christ within the Temple of God Most High in heaven)”

²⁰ Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show (discuss about, teach, enlighten) His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. ²² Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” (Peter suffered from an unregenerate mind of religious understandings and human passion. Or in Jesus word, “the flesh”. )

²³ But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me (get out of my face! get out of here- to paraphrase it in our wording of such an outburst of disgust and irritation), Satan! You are a stumbling block (the opposer, the force of opposition) to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

For the World - A Year of Gathering Storms

2019 will also be marked as a year of great confusion. The bottom (foundation) will fall out from under many who are "wise in their own eyes,” especially leaders in the political, academic, cultural, business and other arenas... the so-called “wise men or rulers of the world". It will be a year of full of the spectacles of the follies of man. The “norms” of man’s own wisdom and strength will prove to be flimsy and shaky, to say the least. A shiny and huge balloon will be popped by the prick of a tiny needle because it is already puffed up to its capacity. Such is the foundation of man’s building when it is tested by the power and wisdom of God.

For us as followers of Christ, the evidence of the judgment in "God’s own house” will be very noticable. It will be a year when the religion of man will become more and more adamant and aggressive in its defiance towards and its prosecution of the work of the Holy Spirit in the midst of God’s people. Many who are evil in their hearts and corrupt in their ways will throw away their pretense and restraint. Allow me to spare us the details here if that happens.

With everything being intensified, 2019 is apt to become the year of the rage of the masses. The men and women of the world will turn more and more to despotism and radical ideologies or beliefs as outlets of their panic, anger, disillusionment and discontent. The popular culture and its practices will become more and more unabashedly defiant with their perversion and rebellion toward traditions, social norms and toward God. In many situations they will not merely be vocal but begin to act upon of their violent and bestial impulses. In essence, the wicked and corrupted world will be thrust into further deception and desperation by the work of the evil one.

We also should expect great upheaval in the economic world. 2019 and/or the ensuing few years may very well be a time of a great financial storms. The unrestrained and overbearing departure of the nominal economy from the real economy will be one of the greatest bubbles to break. The scale and impact of which is certainly be greater than those of the 2008 crisis.

Matthew 12:30–45 (NASB95)

³⁰ “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. ³¹ “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. ³² “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. ³⁵ “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. ³⁶ “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. ³⁷ “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” ³⁹ But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; ⁴⁰ for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴² “The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

⁴³ “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. ⁴⁴ “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Revelation 17:1–18 (NASB95)

¹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, ² with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”

³ And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, ⁵ and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” ⁶ And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.

⁷ And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. ⁸ “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder (marvel and adorn) when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.

⁹ “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, 10 and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. ¹¹ “The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.

Note by Immanuel: Seven heads seem to symbolize the different times of the same culture. It is obvious to me the hellenistic culture throughout the history of mankind.

¹² “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. ¹³ “These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴ “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”

¹⁵ And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. ¹⁶ “And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. ¹⁷ “For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. ¹⁸ “The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

Note by Immanuel: Evidently the woman or Babylon the Great Harlot is a false religion; the beast is the culture (kingdom) of the wisdom of man embodied by the hellenistic culture with its philosophical or metaphysical constructs, which in turn being adorned and applied by the western world.

A year of decision

As always, and as it should be, all mankind has a choice. To be or not to be? Sons of Light or sons of Darkness? Sons of Zion or sons of Greece?

Joel 2:30–3:2 (NASB95)

³⁰ “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. ³¹ “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ³² “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

¹ “For behold, in those days and at that time, When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, ² I will gather all the nations And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.

Joel 3:9–21 (NASB95)

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men! Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up! ¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, “I am a mighty man.” ¹¹ Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down, O Lord, Your mighty ones. ¹² Let the nations be aroused And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat1, For there I will sit to judge All the surrounding nations. ¹³ Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵ The sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness. ¹⁶ The Lord roars from Zion And utters His voice from Jerusalem, And the heavens and the earth tremble. But the Lord is a refuge for His people And a stronghold to the sons of Israel.

¹⁷ Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy, And strangers will pass through it no more. ¹⁸ And in that day The mountains will drip with sweet wine, And the hills will flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah will flow with water; And a spring will go out from the house of the Lord To water the valley of Shittim.2 ¹⁹ Egypt will become a waste, And Edom will become a desolate wilderness, Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, In whose land they have shed innocent blood. ²⁰ But Judah will be inhabited forever And Jerusalem for all generations. ²¹ And I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged, For the Lord dwells in Zion.

Zechariah 9:8–17 (NASB95)

⁸ But I will camp around My house because of an army, Because of him who passes by and returns; And no oppressor will pass over them anymore, For now I have seen with My eyes. ⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ¹⁰ I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹ As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. ¹² Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you. ¹³ For I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece; And I will make you like a warrior’s sword.

¹⁴ Then the Lord will appear over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning; And the Lord God will blow the trumpet, And will march in the storm winds of the south. ¹⁵ The Lord of hosts will defend them. And they will devour and trample on the sling stones; And they will drink and be boisterous as with wine; And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, Drenched like the corners of the altar. ¹⁶ And the Lord their God will save them in that day As the flock of His people; For they are as the stones of a crown, Sparkling in His land. ¹⁷ For what comeliness and beauty will be theirs! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.

"Josaphat" means "YHVH judges.”↩

a'-bel-shit'-tim ('abhel ha-shiTTim, "the meadow of the Acacias"): The name appears only in Numbers 33:49; but the name Shittim is used to denote the same locality (Numbers 25:1 Joshua 2:1; Joshua 3:1 Micah 6:5). The name always has the article, and the best expression of it in English would be "the Acacias." `The valley of the Acacias' (Joel 3:18 (4:18)) is, apparently, a different locality. For many weeks before crossing the Jordan, Israel was encamped in the vicinity of the Jordan valley, North of the Dead Sea, East of the river. The notices in the Bible, supplemented by those in Josephus and Eusebius and Jerome, indicate that the camping region was many miles in extent, the southern limit being Beth-jeshimoth, toward the Dead Sea, while Abel of the Acacias was the northern limit and the headquarters. The headquarters are often spoken of as East of the Jordan at Jericho (e.g. Numbers 22:1; Numbers 26:3, 63). During the stay there occurred the Balaam incident (Numbers 22-24), and the harlotry with Moab and Midian (Numbers 25) and the war with Midian (Numbers 31), in both of which Phinehas distinguished himself. It was from the Acacias that Joshua sent out the spies, and that Israel afterward moved down to the river for the crossing. Micah aptly calls upon Yahweh's people to remember all that happened to them from the time when they reached the Acacias to the time when Yahweh had brought them safely across the river to Gilgal. Josephus is correct in saying that Abel of the Acacias is the place from which the Deuteronomic law purports to have been given. In his time the name survived as Abila, a not very important town situated there. He says that it was "sixty furlongs from Abila to the Jordan," that is a little more than seven English miles (Ant., IV, viii, 1 and V, i, 1; BJ, IV, vii, 6). There seems to be a consensus for locating the site at Kefrein, near where the wady of that name comes down into the Jordan valley. --- Willis J. Beecher↩