While pulling together notes for this week’s blog, I was preoccupied with the reading of prophecy concerning a spirit of delusion and deception that cause G-d’s people to oppose the truth. Even from Heaven, Satan’s influence and power of deception overwhelmed the wisdom of angels, causing them to accept and follow a lie.
Satan historically wormed his way into the lives of the unsuspected to present lies that were packaged and decorated, so that the elite people of G-d might fall head-over-heels for Satan’s deceitfulness. Moreover, Satan creates the art of Lying or the Psychology of Persuasion. In other words, Satan takes something that is known to be sin and re-packages it, before re-introducing it as something totally acceptable.
Carla Clark, Ph.D., is BrainBlogger’s Psychology and Psychiatry Section Editor and a scientific consultant, writer, and researcher in fields including psychology and neuropsychology, as well as biotechnology, molecular biology, and biophysical chemistry.
Dr. Clark is also the author of “Top 5 persuasion techniques of 2015”. She wrote, “the art of persuasion is an art form. It’s not always easy to get everyone on board and ready to comply.” http://brainblogger.com/2015/06/25/top-5-persuasion-techniques-of-2015/
Satan’s first move is to get his victims to accept his presence, as he presents himself as a non-threat to them. He just wants to hang around at first; later he initiates his true plan of brining innocent person under his control.
For example, with Eve he made her think he was on her side when he asked the question, “What is G-d really up to?” However, when Satan tried this technique on Yeshua, (Jesus of Nazareth) Satan was crushed underfoot because the Messiah would never surrender to His hunger pain when Satan sought to get Him to focus on His human need. Thankfully, the Messiah’s nutrition came from obeying His Heavenly Father.
NLT John 4:34 Then, Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, Who sent me, and from finishing His work.
Jesus knew that His hunger pain was a lesson about willing obedience.
I remember as a child; we rode horses from morning to afternoon without eating breakfast, energized by the excitement of riding. As a result, food never entered our minds.
NLT Deuteronomy 8:3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deu 8:3 NLT)
Fully focused and aware of His purpose, while fully anointed; Jesus was not moved by Satan’s craftiness nor was the L-rd impressed with the devil’s generous offers.
“I will give it all to you,” Satan said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” (Mat 4:9 NLT)
Satan was targeting Jesus’ immediate human need to recover His strength by tempting Him with food after His 40-day fast. In all Satan’s wisdom, he never held a clue to the amazing things God performed in the wilderness. One must admire the beautiful spectacle of Christ turning down Satan’s offer of gifts, power and a kingdom without the suffering and anxiety of Calvary’s cross. Kneeling down to Satan would have amounted to an idolatrous act and disqualified the one and only Saviour of the World.
CJB Romans 2:22 states, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,”
Do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts? (Rom 2:22 CJB)
The fast of the Messiah (the fast of Jesus Christ) was one of the most significant strategic moves by our Heavenly Father.
Satan knew how to defeat the children of God in the wilderness because the only skill Satan needed was to remind the Hebrews of familiar foods and their favorite pagan holidays. Nevertheless, this prophetic event was to produce the coming of the
“Mashiach Ben-Josef” translated into the anointed son of Joseph, or the suffering Messiah.
While some people will stop at just being religious, there are others who will allow Yeshua to guide them into becoming servants of integrity.
2 Remember how the LORD your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.
3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell.
5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the LORD your God disciplines you for your own good.
(Deu 8:2-5 NLT)
So we should stop stressing over the trials of life and learn the example of the wilderness. And, let us enjoy the nourishment that gives us our strength which comes from obeying God’s Word.
Present day Christians have made the Christmas season into a representation of “the season to be jolly.”
Yeshua may have attended Hanukkah in Jerusalem (Joh 10:21-26 CJB), but the Messiah would have never attended any service that celebrated Santa Claus and symbolized mystical flying beasts, hero-worship and decorating their homes with shrines to ancient tree worship.
At a point in studying Pagan feast, I sense the need for a precision understanding of the Pagan shrines that were set up in the typical unbeliever’s homes. The pagans who had no faith in Christianity, however, worshiped the Gods of the environment, but not the G-d of Abraham, Jacob or Issac.
I was able to locate these pictures of the standard Pagan Altar, placed into homes of agnostics. The main difference in the spiritual contacts of the Pagan Decorations is that they accumulate spiritual presences of the underworld. Consequently, the nation that serves these Pagan objects will suffer the loss of prosperity, decency, and spiritual blindness.
Hanukkah in Jerusalem
Complete Jewish Bible John10:22 Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, 23 and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade.
24 So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!”
Hanukkah is a Jewish commemoration of Adonia delivering the Jews from Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria. The Syrian King who desecrated the altar of God of Israel. Then King Antiochus made it impossible for the priest to keep the holy fire burning before the Altar of G-d. Miraculously, God performed a miracle so that the fire burned eight days by itself. Jews worldwide will light candles on the Hanukkah Lamp each night of this celebration.
I am the light of the world
12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (Joh 8:12 KJV)
The Complete Jewish Bible
25 Yeshua answered them, “I have already told you, and you don’t trust me. The works I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf,
26 but the reason you don’t trust is that you are not included among my sheep. (Joh 10:21-26 CJB)
Historical fact: The winter feast existed and predated long before Christ was born in Bethlehem. The most gruesome detail of the pagan practice is that children were killed and sacrificed under the evergreen tree. The Evergreen was not a Christmas tree because the pagan holiday had not been repackaged and renamed as of yet.
Complete Jewish Bible Jeremiah 2:20 “For long ago I broke your yoke; when I snapped your chains, you said, ‘I won’t sin.’ Yet on every high hill, under every green tree, you sprawled and prostituted yourself. (Jer 2:20 CJB)
Evergreen Tree worship that predates Christianity: Deu12:2; 1Kings14:23; 2Kings 16:4; 2 Chronicles; 28:4; Isiah 57:5; Jerimiah 2:20; Jerimiah 3:6; Jerimiah 3:13; Jerimiah 17:2; Ezekiel 6:13; Ezekiel 20:28; Ezekiel 17:24
The only way the ancient pagan feast survived in today’s civilization was to rename and Christianize it.
The terrifying Krampus is a sort of anti-Santa, dispensing punishment to children who’ve been bad during the year, while the kindly St. Nick bestowed gifts on the good kids. Sprung from pre-Christian folklore, Krampus has survived through the ages as a particularly ghastly part of holiday tradition. It is still very much celebrated in certain parts of Europe, especially in Austria.
https://www.bing.com/search?
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The message in the Fast of the Messiah is that Jesus surfaced from the wilderness desiring to accomplish His Father’s will. Even the Cross was no obstacle for the L-rd’s passion for finishing His destiny.
34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.
35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.
36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!
37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true.
38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
(Joh 4:34-38 NLT)
Suffering Messiah
Many of Jesus’ followers caught the vision of the Suffering Messiah and continued to do great things for ADONIA.
18 And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?”
19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
(1Pe 4:18-19 NLT)
13 Instead, be very glad– for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
14 So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. (1Pe 4:13-14 NLT)
29 For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. (Phi 1:29 NLT)
6 So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. (1Th 1:6 NLT)
9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. (1Pe 5:9 NLT)
7 So we have been greatly encouraged in the midst of our troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith. (1Th 3:7 NLT)
4 We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering.
5 And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering.
6 In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you.
(2Th 1:4-6 NLT)
9 I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. (Rev 1:9 NLT)