Living a sealed up life
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The Greek word for “sealed” means to stamp, seal up or stop, such as with a signet or private mark for security or preservation. When God’s people are sealed, the stamp or imprint of Christ’s character in the mind is set, which is a sign of God’s approval and protection from the influence of Satan. This imprint is also the completion of the engraving of the law on the heart as promised in the new covenant. Christ’s character is revealed in His law. Those who are sealed and reflect Christ’s character must, by definition, also be upholding His law. (Hebrews 10:14-18) (2 Corinthians 3:3).
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Revelation reveals a struggle between a beast from the sea and God’s people. Those who worship the beast receive the mark of the beast in their hand or forehead and those who follow God receive the seal of God in their forehead. (Revelation 13:16, Revelation 7:3, Deut. 11:18, Isaiah 8:16, Dan. 7:25)
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Remember, whether you are sealed is determined during your lifetime. The submission to the Holy Spirit and obedience to God’s law must be shown while here on earth. This is the time to build character, be molded and sealed into place.
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The 144,000 “firstfruits”
The prophecy of the Three Angels’ Messages in Revelation describes a group of 144,000 who are sealed (Rev. 7, 14). The term “firstfruits” (Rev. 14:4) is used to describe those sealed, emphasizing spiritual growth. The sealing process is likened to the process of growing up like a plant, reaching maturity, and thus being ready for harvest. When a plant matures, its characteristics have been established. The time of deciding whether to be a potato or a tomato is certainly past. The height, shape, color, size, and fruit reveal exactly what type of plant it is.
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Characteristics of the sealed (Revelation 7:2-4, 14:1-5). all of this
- Servants of God (7:3) – They don’t follow their own will, but the will of their master.
- Sealed in their foreheads (7:3) – Their mind is the focus. What and how they think is the determining factor.
- Father’s name on forehead (14:1) – The way they think, or their character, is patterned after God’s character.
- Not defiled with women / Virgins (14:4) – They are true to their “husband”, Christ. They reject idols and have not joined with earthly powers when they contradict Christ’s commands, as has the woman called Babylon and her harlot daughters (apostate churches).
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- Follow the lamb (14:4) – They imitate Christ. They study what Christ is doing through all the various phases of His ministry and follow Him, cooperating with the process through faith. They believe He is ministering for them, and they keep their eyes focused on Him.
- No guile in mouth (14:5) – The word translated to guile means deceit, trick, or decoy. They speak straightforwardly, truthfully, and simply. The things they profess are the same things they believe and practice. They do not hide anything about their true character, and they do not misrepresent the character of Christ.
- Without fault (14:5) – Those who are sealed are without blame or unblemished. They have stopped hiding their faults, and God has made them blameless. Their consciences are clear.
- Firstfruits (14:5) – They have grown up spiritually and their characters have reached maturity, received the latter rain and are ready for the harvest.
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Can you say you are surrendered to the Lord?
Are you willing to surrender your will to the Lord?
Does He have a right to expect us to surrender to Him?
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What is He asking you to surrender today?
Would you be willing to ask Him today to search you and show you if anything is hidden?
It might not be a sin; it might be something that is not His will for you because He knows where He wants to take you.
When He reveals what you need to surrender
Don’t:
Hold on to it
Justify it
Rationalize it
Be in agreement with it
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Surrendering is not easy, it can mean giving up your rights, opportunities, comforts, habits etc.
When a general surrenders, it means defeat. He gives up all rights and liberties but for a child of God it means finding your life.
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He wants to bless you and for you to enjoy a part of Christian life few will ever experience.
Unfortunately, most will never surrender and will allow disobedience to block their blessing.
What would He do if you did surrender?
What would He do in your family? In those around you?
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To go to new depths with Him we must do everything in our power to stay in a state of repentance & surrender to His will.
This does not mean we are perfect; it means we are willing.
We are willing to trust Him wholeheartedly and when He says to put something down, we do it.
When He says go here or go there, we go.
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Yahshua is our best example of surrender.
During Yeshua’s last hours of His life He said
“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me but not my will, your will be done.”
He was willing to submit to Yahweh’s will.
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When we are submitted to Yahweh’s Will, we can know we are not grieving the Holy Spirit
Eph. 4:30 says, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”.
Visualize a person stiffening their neck or hardening their heart. This gives a picture of someone who is proud, stubborn, rebellious, and determined to do something their own way.
We must be aware and guard our hearts. Persistent rejection of the Holy Spirit leads to a “searing” of the conscience, making it callous and insensitive, eventually rendering a person incapable of hearing the Holy Spirit anymore.
Grieving the Holy Spirit would mean we don’t appreciate or allow this type of work in our lives. But this is the life changing work that we all need to live a sealed-up life.
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Heavenly competition
God and Satan are constantly vying for our love and devotion but for very different reasons. God sincerely loves us and wants a relationship with us. Satan on the other hand is incapable of love, he is the master of deception however he can offer thrilling and tantalizing experiences as a means of luring man away from God.
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Can Satan access the believer?
Can Christians be demonized?
´ Don’t give the devil a foothold Eph. 4:46-27; 1 Peter 5:8-9
´ Armor of God Eph 6:11-17
´ Sanctification process 2 Cor 10:5; 2 Peter 1:3
´ Symptoms of enemy foothold John 10:10; Romans 3:23
´ Things changed in the garden Romans 6:16; Romans 8:5-8
´ Even when born again the flesh is a source of evil entry in a believer’s life Rom. 7:21; Gal 5:16-17; Col. 1:13
Many Christians believe that a believer cannot be possessed, they don’t have to worry about any kind of satanic involvement in their lives. If this was so we would not be given so many admonitions in scripture to resist the devil and not give him a foot hold: Eph. 4;26-27; 1 Peter 5:8-9 nor would we have been given instructions to put on the spiritual armor to stand successfully against our adversary Ephesians 6:11-17. The truth is the blood of Yahshuah cleanses us from all sin, we are responsible to rid ourselves of those behaviors, thought patterns that make us vulnerable to attack and influence by evil spiritual beings 2 Cor. 10:5. This is part of the sanctification process for which God thoroughly equips us 2 Peter 1:3
Instead of asking if a believer can be demon possessed, we ought to ask can a Christian be tempted, have a worldly mind set, be taken advantage of by the enemy, subject to division, give way to pride, suffer with fear, rejection, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, shame, guilt, and condemnation? These are all symptoms that indicate the enemy has gotten a foot in the door and is hindering the work that God want to do within that person to give him a fruitful and abundant life and bring glory to Himself (John 10:10; Romans 3:23).
Yahshuah, Adam and Eve are the only ones that came into this life with a clean spiritual slate. Because Yahweh wanted us to have a choice regarding who we would love, honor, and depend upon to meet our needs he created Lucifer as well as an alternative to Himself. When they chose to act on his word instead of Yah’s word, it caused things to change, and Satan gained dominion over them (Romans 6:16.) This not only affected their eternal destiny, but it gave Satan an internal rule over part of man’s soul known as the flesh. The flesh is so devoted to evil and self-seeking pleasures scripture says it cannot please God Romans 8:5-8. Even when born again and we are transferred into the Kingdom of God the flesh remains as an internal dynamo thirsting for evil. While the flesh no longer has absolute authority over man’s soul it is generally the source of evil connections in a believer’s life Rom. 7:21-25; Gal 5:16-17; Col. 1:13
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We wrestle not with flesh and blood
I have come to differentiate three types of demonic strongholds:
Lower-level spirits or demons working in ones like through ungodly character traits and ongoing patterns of sinful indulgence.
Higher level evil beings are established when a person’s ungodly behavior gets deeply embedded or deliberate dedications to entities are made. The effects are more powerful and enduring
Generational inheritances are established through specific curses uttered against an individual or family and deep patterns of unrepentant sin continue through successive generations. Scripture tells us the sins of the forefathers are passed down to the third and fourth generations. Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:7
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Some of the ways these spirits get a foothold
One of the most obvious ways is to be involved in occult activity. The focus of many of these is to gain knowledge or supernatural experiences. God made it clear these things are detestable to him Deut. 18:10-12. When you enter Satan’s camp you open yourself up.
Some examples:
Tarot cards
Seances
Horoscopes
Psychics
Idolatry
Idolatry is not only pagan idols, but it can also be idolatry of the heart and can be just as offensive to God. Ezek 14: 2-8 God says He will set His face against anyone practicing idolatry of the heart, canceling blessings, and not responding to prayers. Even high priority issues such as family, job, ministry, education, or health can become idols if we are not willing to sacrifice or put them in as priority over being obedient to God. Other behaviors such as appearance, performance, orderliness, or control can also creep into idol status.
Addiction: drugs, alcohol, nicotine, gambling, sex, pornography, food, work, busyness etc.
The most frequent idols are those that arise out of our world system particularly money and material gain. Money is so powerful and alluring commodity capable of providing security, prestige, and entertainment that even Christians are apt to forget that God is infinitely more capable of supplying these for us and promises to do so if we just make Him and His righteousness priority in our lives Mat 6:33, Phil 4:19 If we choose to trust in money over God to supply our needs we are engaged in the idolatry of mammon. Scripture clearly states we cannot serve God and Mammon Matthew 6:24 and equates the guest for material possessions with idolatry Col. 3:5-6
Because idols of the heart can be so insidious, we would all do well to examine our lives and take stock of what is important to us. If any of these cannot be laid aside to do God’s will, it needs to be recognized as an idol of the heart.
Religion
While we can readily recognize many false religions of the world, the Christian church is not immune to Satan’s deception. The way to evaluate if it is from God is to find it in scripture and to determine what kind of fruit is being produced in the life of the person teaching it.
Rationalizing or allowing human reasoning to supersede the Word of God is one-way Satan infiltrates and weakens the Church. Scripture clearly says that the depths of wisdom and knowledge revealed in God’s Word is beyond human comprehension and reasoning even the wisest men are useless and foolish in comparison. Roman 11:33-36; 1 Cor 3:19-20 Yet some individuals upon encountering parts of the Bible they believe cannot possibly be taken literally feel they are doing the church a service by using human wisdom or reasoning and coming up with an alternative that makes more sense to them. This is the same thing that occurred in the garden when Satan said that what He really said was Gen 3:1 and Romans 6:16 this can put us in the same snare. Faith in God’s Word is what is a defining characteristic of a true Christian. It binds us to God Eph 2:8. Heb 11:1-6, 1 peter 1:6-7 Doubting opens us up to attack Romans 14:23; Eph 6:16;1 John 5:4
Legalism
Christ came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. In doing so He made a way for us to come back into right standing with Yahweh through His shed blood on the cross and our choosing to receive that gift. He also tells us if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. It’s important for us to understand that the entire Bible is one continuous story and relevant today. We cannot obtain our salvation by any other means than the shed blood of Christ, but we are not to stop there. His word is active and tells us faith without works is dead. Do not let Satan rob you from all that He has for us while we are here on earth. He has set appointed times for us to commune with Him, ways that we can go deeper with Him. Although these are not a Salvation issue and not meant to enter legalism, they are commandments He gave us to grow to be more like him and close to Him.
Division
God desires His body to be united in one faith with one mind and purpose to guard against division based on foolishness and petty differences.
Rebellion
Willful disobedience is turning away from God, failing to believe Him or His promises or treat Him with reverence. The most obvious is turning to other gods like The Israelites turned to other gods repeatedly before entering the promised land. Less subtle is the person who puts his will above God’s will as Moses did when he struck the rock in the wilderness or turning to a human role model like the Corinthians did. Any of these actions represent lies and temptations from the enemy and put out a welcome mat.
God see rebellion as serious and equates it to divination and idolatry 1 Samuel 15:23
Deception
Lies and deception open doors
Ananias and Sapphira lied to God about the nature of the gift they brought to Him. In this case scripture says Satan filled their hearts to the lie against the Holy Spirit again confirming the origin of lies. Although death is not always the consequence, God has repeatedly said that He will shorten the lives of those who are deceitful (Ps. 34;12;52;2-5;55:23; Proverbs 21:28) He abhors all forms of deceit and His response to it is usually severe. At the very least the deceitful person misses out on Gods Blessings
Pride
Pride was the original sin of Lucifer and is a prime characteristic he endeavors to establish in the hearts of mankind to draw them away from God.
Man becomes increasingly vulnerable to being prideful as he obtains success in life and is lured by Satan to take credit vs recognizing God as the source of everything. By not giving credit to God Satan wins and gets a foothold.
Anger and Hate
Although anger is a natural emotion, when the flesh is in control of one’s life anger can erupt into jealousy, pride, selfishness. This is not righteous anger.
God says don’t let the sun go down upon our anger. I believe it’s because it prolongs our period of vulnerability to a sinful reaction. Therefore, we are instructed to resolve our anger quickly.
Blood shedding
As in Cain and David we see that taking one’s life results in a curse for the rest of one’s life. There are consequences even if one is forgiven through receiving Christ. Many times, we see the generational curse of murder and death in those that come to see us. These can be broken but until someone pursues a cleansing of the blood line you typically will see a curse flow down the family tree.
Violence
Mistreatment of others- if one exhibits violence towards another person this gives evidence that Satan already has a foothold in his life.
In scripture, God repeatedly prohibits violence against the innocent and that those who do not obey commandments would be cursed.
Sexual Sin
As followers of Christ, His spirit becomes one with our spirit and our bodies the temple of the Holy Spirit as well as integral parts of Christ who is one with the Father.
Many fail to understand the uniqueness and sanctity of the union when two individuals engage in intercourse. Scripturally it’s clear that two become one flesh. Just as the spiritual unity between Christ and the Church is between Him and His bride so too is sexual unity only between husband and wife.
When the true nature of these unions is grasped, we can’t escape the reality that illicit sex brings God into an ungodly union. This is part of the reason acts such as adultry, rape, incest, homosexuality, bestiality is so grievous within Christians. God does not tolerate the defilement of His temple and has proclaimed a curse in the form of severe punishment upon all that do it. Although sometimes when there is a true repentant heart, grace is extended.
One note is that this is one of the most common principalities we deal with when doing ministry sessions. Perversion has a strong hold on many in the world today but with repentance and obedience we can take authority over it, and He will set the captives free.
Unforgiving heart
Scripture tells us that if we do not forgive, He cannot forgive us. Forgiveness is a decision to extend grace. You do not have to let the person back in your life unless Father says so you just choose to lay that burden down.
If a client will not forgive, we are unable to move forward in ministry sessions because the legal right is present.
Love of the world
A need for internal submission and external actions is crucial. Just as a soldier engaged in active service to his country separates himself from the affairs of life so our calling as ambassadors for the kingdom of God requires diligent separation from the things of this world. Paul tells us to consider ourselves dead to them. The reason for such a strict call to
separation is that even by dabbling around the worldly activities whether in real life or vicariously through TV, internet, or fantasies of our mind we enter Satan’s playground. Once our appetite is whetted to desire, Satan has won victory and gained a stronger inroad into our lives.
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These are all taking the place of God who can bring deep healing to our emotional wounds. Isa 61:1-3
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Come out of her my people!
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This is the cry of Yahweh to his end times saints in Rev 18:4. Come out of what? Out of Babylon the great. What is Babylon?
A quick definition is a global religious, economic and political antichrist system that is confused with both good and evil which enslaves the mind and lives of humans.
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What does it mean to come out? It starts as a matter of the heart. When issues of the heart are addressed and dealt with the rest will take care of itself.
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Being in the world, not of the world.
When Yahweh urges His people to come out of the world He’s talking about believers of God in the Bible. When they learn who they are supposed to be in Biblical terms and embrace the vision in their hearts and minds they will automatically start coming out of Babylon by first putting the leaven out of themselves.
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Who does the Bible say we are?
´ The Believer is in the world but not of the world John 17:11,14
´ The “called-out ones” (ecclesia) Called out from what? Being controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil.
´ Holy and set apart (Kadosh) Lev 11:44, 45; 20:7,26; 1peter 1:5, 16:2:9 Set apart from what? Controlling influences of this world, flesh, and devil
´ Believers are foreigners, strangers, pilgrims in this world. They are part of another kingdom and sojourners passing through enroute to our eternal Kingdom Heb 11:13 1 Peter 2:11
´ The Saints are to be salt and light in this dark rotten world Mathew 5:13-14 That means what they do and say is different from this world.
´ Followers of Yah are to come out and be separated 2 Cor 6:14-17 and cannot be a friend of this world and Elohim at the same time Jas 4:4
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What should we do then? This is a call to action!
- What then shall we do?
- Repent 1 John 3:4
- Humble & turn 2 Chron 7:14, 17,19
- Return Jer 6:16; 18:15
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Practical daily ways to start
Start each day submitting your will to our King.
Commune with Him
Dance with Him- He is our Bridegroom
Feed on His Word
Pray and petition in the courts of heaven
Forgive, repent,
break vows and soul ties
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Spiritual Boot Camp
To go to new depths with Him we must do everything in our power to stay in a state of repentance and surrender of our will to Him. This does not mean we are perfect; it means we are willing.
Although it can seem overwhelming to go through the process of getting the world out of us, we have the perfect example in Yahshua.
Even though Yahshua was Yahweh’s perfect son He learned obedience through surrendering His will to Yah’s- Hebrew 5:8
It’s in the struggle, the hardship that we grow muscle, learn skills, and realize He’s all we need. It’s in these times that we can learn to take more territory internally and externally for the Lord.
Our culture wants to avoid pain, and wants everything now, a quick fix because we have a culture of rescuing from pain but it’s in the pain that we get motivated. When pain is great it will motivate you to change.
When we have not built the spiritual muscle in surrendering and then we show up for battle, we do not have staying power. We lose faith and focus.
God wants us to grow up, toughen up.
Romans 5:3
Let us rejoice in our suffering that creates endurance and maturity.
Develop patience, not giving up the battle so easily, then we will mature and well start to look at our hope from an eternal perspective.
He knows our weak spots, so does Satan, the only ones that don’t are us. We are the last ones to know the state of our heart Jer. 17:9 tells us man’s heart is the most deceitful of all things.
Christ is our model, he said before the cross that the devil came to kill me, but he has no claim on me, no power over me, nothing in common with me and no place in me. He wants to move everything out of us that would give Satan a legal right
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This not only affects yourself but as a church we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities and spiritual
wickedness. Territorial spirits can only be brought down through repentance of large number of people.
Judgment will first come to the house of the Lord.
We are moving into a new phase, out of the church age and into the Kingdom age that will take us into the Millennial age.
There is a separation of the wheat and the tare within the church occurring while at the same we have a lot of baby Christians refusing to mature.
He is trying to get us ready. The biggest test of all time will be the mark of the beast whenever it occurs. His goal is to get us ready and be a church that when He returns, we will not love our life unto death. It’s going to take great maturity to not be part of this world system and trust God for everything.
He’s going to shake everything that can be shaken. Everything is exposed so the only thing that remains is the Kingdom.
Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego are great examples of those who did not give into the world and although they were tested, they came out on top as Daniel became second in charge in and the others were not touched by the flames, and everyone repented and gave God the glory upon seeing Him move in protecting them. If only a few were needed to change a territory they would not have had to go through the persecution because they were praying, fasting, and standing.
We are currently at a stalemate with not enough people getting their lives cleaned up and joining in the battle. Just like SRA victims we must look at all the parts of our heart behind our amnesiac wall. Both in us and our nation.
We are in a dog fight and too many want to make Yahshuah an image that scripture does not support. He is a gentleman, and we must invite Him into every part and change to the likeness of Him and His Holiness. The protection is in the commandments, and we must change to win.
Our sin is destructive, and it blocks Christ, and it causes the little ones to stumble and the mind control victims not to be harvested because we don’t want to look at the deeper things of God. We want to stay infants but when man matures, he takes a different tone with his father.
Luke warmness will no longer be allowed – they will not be able to stand – they’ll be weaned out.
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We have Two underutilized powerful weapons
Our Will- There is a battle over the allegiance of our Will. Satan tries to shatter our will as early as he can that’s why sexual abuse for the young is so rampant. If he can break our will he wins until a part of us responds to the call of Yahshua
Authority- scripture tells us that the earth moans and groans waiting for the sons and daughters of Elohim to know who they are. We have been given authority but rarely use it.
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We were born for such a time as this
Together in unity in Christ we will overcome.
This is a hard message, but His love prepares us.
Are you preparing to never deny Jesus no matter what?
This message is not for everyone, I’m speaking to those that would hear it because there is a group that knows the truth.
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Ephesians 6:13
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.