Was Jonah Forced In To Submission By God Breaking His Law Of Freewill?

Does God Override The Human Will Sometimes?

Question : As we know that God is the greatest gentleman in the entire universe because he guides only when people provide space for Him to be that guide they want Him to be. He will never override anybody's free will unless they have completely submitted and committed to Him to take over in that particular area of their lives. But what about the prophet Jonah who was taken by God forcefully against his own will in to the belly of a whale to make Him do His will? Did God not override Jonah's will to break His own Law of non-interference in to a human will even when prophet Jonah did not want to do God's will in his life?

Answer : Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!!!! Jonah was a prophet who has already given His life and will to do God's purpose on earth. In other words, He has already committed Himself to do God's will but because of prejudice in His soul towards the Assyrian Gentiles, he did not want to go where God told him to go because he wanted to save His own people more than God wanted them to be saved from inside out from their sinful ways. Jonah believed that if God shows Assyrians mercy as he usually does with all sinners, he and his beloved nation will very soon one day be invaded and be ruled by them. God overrides our will when we commit our lives to fulfill His will. That is why I believe the greatest prayer on earth as God's child we can do is, "My will I commit in to your hands, help me do your will on earth as it is in heaven...." Jonah wanted to do God's will, but he didn't like that particular command God gave him to do at that certain point of time. In other words, God did not direct Jonah in the way he thought God will do, instead God told Jonah to do the exact opposite of what he wanted to do and Jonah reasoned it out in his soul and thought it was for God's people sake that he wanted to disobey God's command. Jonah thought that God had done wrong in this particular thing by taking a wrong decision not to protect God's people but instead exposed them to danger from their enemies which are God's enemies too. God wanted to teach His unwilling servant to learn more about His mercy and grace by showing it to those who are sinners and do not deserve it just like he himself who also do not deserve it but has been favored by God (Luke 23:34).

The great prophet Jonah was humbled by God until he actually learned the hard lesson to implicitly obey God in spite of not understanding His higher way with his natural mind through God's enrollment of him in the whale-belly School of theology. So the bottom line is, if we do not desire to do God's will in our lives permanently by hardening our heart and rejecting the constant knock of the Lord to open our self up and give in to His will for our lives, He will not bother us up until the time of His wrath and indignation (Rev 3:20; Prov 1:23-33; 29:1; Heb 6:5-6; 10:26, 29), but if we want to do God's will and temporarily do not want to do obey His command because of thinking it as something wrong or something to lose (Matt 26:37-44), God in His love will override our will like He did to Jonah and will teach us to do His will because we are His child and desire here on earth to serve Him (Jonah 2:2, 7, 9; Heb 12:6-7, 10-11; Luke 22:31, 33; Eph 2:10). As we serve God, He wants us to do everything His way, whenever we resist it, He will chastise us until we learn to do His way which is the only thing that will please Him and make us become as mature sons of God being led by His Spirit in His will for His Glory (Rom 8:14, 28-30). Praise the Lord!

Another great point to be noted about Jonah's life story is, it is a type shadow that was done to the nation of Israel to make them understand how the nation of Israel will be judged in God's will for their sins and hardening of heart against the Lord God Almighty who has made them His very own people by His favor and not by their works of the Law that Israel as a nation kept, which was the reason with pride they thought that they deserve God's blessing and took for granted the Lord's justice, mercy and faith which are the most important thing in relationship with God which God requires (Matt 23:23; Mic 6:8). So Jesus who wanted to save the nation of Israel which was the will of God until they hardened their heart to reject God by rejecting Jesus whom He sent (Matt 15:24; 21:28-32, 42-44; Heb 10:5-9), then Jesus Himself understood that the direction of the will of God to reach out to the gentiles of the world with His mercies has come even though the Roman empire which is going to hear the good news will completely destroy the nation of Israel to scatter them in to the whole wide world (Luke 21:20-24). Unlike Jonah Jesus did not stick soulishly in to His own will but gave willingly in to God's will to be done even though he did not like it to be that hard way (Matt 12:40; 26:39, 42, 44). Jesus by hearing the Father speak to Him moment after moment, understood His heart of mercy and his love for those who do His will implicitly even when they do not understand within their finite mind, have come to a mature mindset within him to know that those who are in the flesh are not really his brothers and sisters and mothers (Matt 12:46-50), but more than that those who do God's will like the Sheba the queen of the South who came from ends of the earth to hear God's wisdom from King Solomon, and the people of Nineveh who accepted Jonah's message of repentance to God and faith towards the Lord, repented and accepted God's salvation for their lives are actually His other gentile Brothers along with those who will believe Him through the word of His apostles to whom He had the responsibility to take care as a first born Son of the Father (Luke 11:27-28, 29-30, 32; Heb 1:5; 2:11; John 1:12-13; 17:20; Col 1:15). Thus the sign of Jonah was a type shadow God wanted to play as a rehearsal for the nation of Israel of what is going to happen when Jesus will come to the nation of Israel just like Jonah came to the nation of Israel as its prophet but then was sent by God to the gentiles to save them for eternity ahead when they actually hardened their heart towards God and taken for granted the favor which God showed to them because of His love for them. Jonah failed and God overruled Jonah's will because of his commitment done previously to Him, but Jesus succeeded in his mission because of perfectly accepting God's will even though He did not understand it as something to be desired for in the mind of his soul before going to the Cross at the end. Jonah was a type of which the fulfillment was Christ! Praise the Lord!

Much Blessings...

Do You Need To Do Anything More Than Receive His Grace?

Does God Require Anything From You As His Child?

Question : Does God require anything from you as His child? Is there anything He says that you must do as His child other than receive His grace? If so, are there spiritual benefits that come through obeying these requirements and spiritual losses that come from ignoring them?

Answer : Greetings in Jesus wonderful name! Once we become a child of God, we stop doing our work as a requirement and start doing it out of our love for God. That is what Jesus revealed in the story of the prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. The Lost son whom Jesus explained about was a son who returned to His Father's Presence out of sin knowing His unworthiness, but the elder Son who was saved from sin as a child of God and was serving Him did all his works as a duty to receive his reward rather than out of his love for what the Father has done for Him (Luke 15:21, 29). In the life of the the lost son we see an act of repentance to life which had led him to experience once again from the severed relationship in fellowship because of sin to an intimate relationship with his Heavenly Father which is eternal life (Acts 11:18; John 17:3). In other words, the prodigal son returns from sin nature and comes to his true self of realizing himself as God's child and then seeks out to return to the Heavenly Father's presence through the blood of Jesus to again experiences the best of heaven's riches (Luke 15:22-23), he experienced the great riches of the Father's wealth and partied in it not because he deserves it but because he availed it through his humility to come to the Father God realizing his need for Him and His unlimited wealth and His never ending mercies that never ceases (Luke 15:17-20; Lam 3:21-23; 1 John 2:1-2; 11:13; James 4:10). The younger son even though was lost from the fellowship with the Father because of his sin, he never ceased to be the son of his father. This shows that he was not a person coming from a unsaved background repenting to receive through Jesus the Father God's relationship for the first time. In other words, he was not a baby Christian but a adult son who had already experienced a close relationship with his Father and then have lost it because of indulging in his sinful fancies and then returned back to fellowship with his Father through returning to him in humility (Rom 8:16-17, 14).

The elder son was also saved and had been born in the family of God (John 1:12-13), but obeyed His Father with a sense of duty out of the realization that he ought to do these things that He requires in order to please Him and earn His reward (Luke 15:29). But following the law will lead a person to sin rather than closer relationship with God because the law was given for us to realize our need for God and not for us to keep in order to please God (Gal 3:19, Rom 3:20, NLT). The law doesn't need faith to keep it, all a person needs to do is to try to keep it by one's own strength and therefore the Bible says, "Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt." (Rom 4:4). In other words, the elder son doing his works out of a sense of requirement to his Father, has made the grace of God become void or of no use and have made the Father God to become a debtor to him. He didn't realize that God the Father who is his father is no man's debtor, but he himself as a sinner in need of grace is a debtor to live according to the Father's will for showering His mercies and grace upon his life abundantly already (Rom 8:12-14; 11:34, 35-36; Job 41:11). By the self-righteous mind set, the elder son denied himself the party time and infinite wealth of his father to be experienced by him even though his father was desiring and pleading with him to come and enjoy the best He had for him always (Luke 15:29-32). The elder son was angry against his father because of jealousy over his younger brother who was not only restored but given the best of Father's wealth to enjoy (Luke 15:28). God has so many elder sons who are working very hard to please him and many many younger sons who does nothing more than return to Him often out of a sense of unworthiness because of their sins that have worked out humility within their heart to make them avail the infinite wealth of the Father God to be enjoyed and partied, not because of their worthiness but because of their daring attitude of faith to go to the Father God boldly out of realization of the Father's worthiness to provide them through the unlimited riches of His grace and mercy in every time of their need (Heb 4:14-16).

The Jews had a elder sons attitude because they followed the law to the word and dot, out of a sense of requirement, and therefore Jesus directed this parable to them. And the younger son was the sinners whom these Jews considered to be unworthy to receive God's mercies and grace (Luke 15:1-2, 11-32). But how mistaken and deceived they have become to deny themselves the grace that their Heavenly Father wanted to give them through Jesus (Matt 9:9, 12-13; 18:10-14; 1 Cor 15:10-11). Old Testament was filled with reward for fulfilling God's requirement, but New Testament is filled with reward for those who believe in what Jesus has promised them, who come to the Father boldly believing again and again of His goodness and benevolence to forgive, give and give. No matter how many promises are there in the Bible, all are yes and amen in Jesus Christ through us as we believe and walk by faith as God's dear children (2 Cor 1:20).

Some Jews out of keeping the law and requirement to receive God's anointing and do the work of God like Jesus, asked Him out of their zeal the following question, "28... “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”" (John 6:28-29). This clearly shows that we cannot work for God in the New Testament but only let God work for us and through us by our faith and love towards Him and His promises which Jesus has made it possible to reach through believing (Gal 5:6; John 14:1, 14; 16:23, 26-27). In other words, the only requirement of God for all the believers of the New Testament age is to believe in Jesus and experience the abundant life that He gives from heaven through the living way of the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:13; John 10:10; Heb 6:9, 12; 10:20; John 6:63; 1 John 5:7-8).

There are innumerable benefits that come to us after salvation if we come to believe the promises of God, and also spiritual loses will come to us if we are ignoring them by our unbelief. One of the main gain when we believe the promises of God is that God starts to work out our salvation on earth and let us choose good things out of our godly fear and trembling that comes out of our love relationship with Him (Php 1:6; 2:12-13). Our reward from God on earth and in the future time of eternity will be based on how we have received the grace of God by faith and allowed God to work within us by keeping the right motive within our heart to do it. The right motive that God is looking for in our heart is whether we choose to work for the glory of God in all that we do (1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:17), when we fulfill that requirement of God it will bring the rich reward of God in to our lives now and for eternity, and then will make us choose to stay in heavenly satisfaction which God will give to us personally (1 Cor 4:5; 2 Cor 5:9-10; Prov 19:23).

Jesus told to all believers, "4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5). What does the above verses really mean? It means we can do a lot of work for God with our strength and effort like the elder son whom we have seen, it can earn us temporal dividend but does not make us become rich spiritually but instead will cause us to incur eternal loss of reward which ought to have been ours if we have done our work not out of requirement but rather out of love like the prodigal son did by partaking and enjoying the party of our Heavenly Father and His riches which comes to us through believing the promises of God and receiving God's grace through which God will work through us by His strength (1 Cor 3:11-15; Eccl 12:14; Prov 16:2; 1 Peter 5:10; Rev 3:11; Heb 6:9-12). The lost son sinned and lost fellowship with the Father, like that we believers many times lose our sense of fellowship with the Father because of some besetting sins. But the lost son was found by the Father when through a sense of humbleness that has come to him because of unworthiness, reached out to the Father in love knowing that He has been forgiven much again and again, but this time too his Father will faithfully receive him and cleanse him from all sins to have a spiritual party with him (Luke 7:36-50; Gal 2:16-21; 1 John 1:9). Fathers love was revealed through the lost son's faith in His unfailing love. May God help us to understand that if we will only believe in our Christian life and keep believing, all thing are possible to be easily achieved with God working hand in hand with us for His Glory, and that is the only work that will please God immensely for now and for eternity (Mark 9:22-23; Heb 11:6). In other words, Jesus has clearly told that no matter what you do for God to please Him by your strength, unless you get in partnership with Jesus by believing His promises and receive His grace to work with Him, you cannot do nothing eternally worthwhile to receive a reward from God and please Him immensely through your life now and forever. So ignoring to believe the promises of God will make you stay in unbelief or do religious work that will incur huge spiritual and eternal loss of reward even though salvation that was given to us by God in Jesus will stay safe because it is actually kept in His own safe hands (John 10:27-30; 1 Cor 3:15; Heb 9:28; 2 Cor 5:10). So the bottom line is, ONLY BELIEVE, ONLY BELIEVE, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, ONLY BELIEVE!!!!

Much Blessings....

Should We Be Called By God Specially To Be A Intercessor?

How To Pray Intercessory Prayers, And How To Become A Intercessor?

Question : How to pray Intercessory prayers, and how to become a intercessor? What is this level of prayer actually? Can you please enlighten us by the Holy Sprit's help. Thank you.

Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name! The word 'intercede' means 'intervene on behalf of another.' So Intercessory prayer is the prayers we make on behalf of others to God. In the Old Testament times all men and women of God learned to intercede on behalf of their friends (Job 42:7-10), fellow Brothers, Sisters and Citizens (Exo 32:31-35; Num 11:1-2), armies of their nations (1 Sam 7:7-12), family members (Job 1:4-5, 10; 1 Sam 30:6-8), leaders of their nation (Exo 17:9-16), etc...God answered their prayers whenever they interceded with their pleas for God to intervene in the hopeless situation of all those for whom they prayed for with their whole heart. God loves to answer the prayer of intercession because prayer is the force on earth which is able to bring God in control of his own creation to fulfill His purpose for all of those who are living in it. Jesus taught His disciples a pattern of prayer in which we can see this intercessory statement in all the entire lines of it when it says, "Our Father....Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us...forgive us...forgive our...do not lead us...but deliver us...Yours is the kingdom, power and glory forever. Amen!" (Matt 6:10-13). What do we notice in the above prayer, it does not teach us to say 'I, Me or Myself,' rather it emphasizes the importance of collective prayer of intercession which say 'You, Us and Ourselves,' for all of us together and not just pray for our self individually. Intercession starts when a heart is in love with God and wants to take the burden which is in God's heart to bring it to pass on earth through our prayer for the glory of God. When we love God, we will naturally love others who are created in His image as our fellow humans. The Bible clearly reveals that if we say that we love God and hate our Brothers, we have become liars, in other words our love for God starts when we start to love those whom we see are in need, and do that action that comes out of our love to be actually done as though we are doing for God (1 John 4:20-21). Every actions that we do for others in need considering our work to be done for the Lord actually becomes a work done to the Lord (Col 3:23-25). This is the core principle we are applying in our Intercessory selfless prayers that we do for others, in doing prayers with such motives we actually get the burden of God for others from His heart and then start to love them supernaturally through our Intercessory prayers for them towards God which then is considered by God as the work done for Him (Matt 25:45; Prov 19:17). In other words, Prayer is not just a work that help us to fulfill the greater works that God does through us— intercessory prayer is the greatest work that we can do for God because taking our prayer as a material for the miracle that is in needed in other people's lives, God then starts to work independently based on the space that we have given Him to fulfill the perfect will of God in others lives through our prayer (Col 4:12-13).

God has set a law for earth in heaven that He himself will not break as a righteous God, it is the law of how He should move in partnership with humans through their prayer on earth, and without them not to intervene on it as He himself has given the reigns of ruling the earth to humans (Job 38:33-34; Gen 1:26; Psa 115:16; Matt 19:26). During one of the driest spiritual time in the nation of Israel, God was looking for just one man in partnership to do the intercessory prayer for Him to intervene and change the scenario of the entire nation. But sadly He did not find even one, as a result of lack of Intercessors God's wrath has overtaken the entire nation of Israel (Isa 59:16; Ezek 22:30). Finally when He was not finding any intercessor on earth not even one, God's heart broke and He sent His only begotten Son for the prime purpose of interceding for the entire humanity as a full human so that God's wrath upon the earth can be avoided and delayed until the time of the end in which His Tribulation will be for a moment of time after which blessings of God's rule would be established through Jesus on earth so that His perfect will could be fulfilled for all humans through God's grace that they will receive through Jesus from Jerusalem (Matt 5:35; 1 Tim 2:5). So what is Jesus doing in heaven, He is not sitting idly having no other work but to rule over the universe, but rather He is there interceding for everyone of us on earth who are God's children and also for the unsaved to turn to Him and be saved (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:34; 1 Tim 2:3-4).

Jesus now wants all of God's children and the Church as a whole to co-operate in this ministry of intercession with Him. That is why Jesus said to His disciples, "a lot of things I cannot say and make you understand the importance of your intercession before my death, but when I die and then go to heaven to release by God's appointment the Holy Spirit and make Him come in to you, He will hear my heart of intercession in heaven and reveal it to God through your prayer to God on earth to fulfill the Father's heart of blessing and grace for all humanity." (John 14:26; 16:7, 12-15, Paraphrased).

We know that God does not hear the prayer of a unrighteous person because with a heart that regards iniquity, his prayer becomes an abomination to Him (John 9:31; Prov 15:29; 28:9; Psa 66:18; 1 Peter 3:12). But God has made us who believed in Jesus to have become His righteousness, we stand before God now not by our own spiritual qualification or righteousness, but rather in Christ Jesus who makes the Holy Spirit pray through us His will and overcomes our weakness in our natural self that weakens our prayer because of the sin nature that resides in us (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Cor 1:30; Rom 8:26-27; James 5:17-18). The bottom line is, Jesus is praying for us in heaven and so our Heavenly Father God is standing for us and against all those who are standing against us, now God wants us to take the help of the Holy Spirit and pray that prayer of Jesus on earth to release it to God to bring back God's answer for us, our nations, our political leaders, even our enemies who are actually the enemies of God and finally intercede with the help of the Holy Spirit for our own lives and families (Rom 8:34, 31, 26-27). This will only release the huge blessing and grace of Jesus that He has for all of us. So the Church together, and we as individual saints should learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's will for us and all the humanity more and more through our everyday Holy Ghost inspired, produced and pronounced prayers of intercession to God through us.

There is an erroneous idea in contemporary Christianity that those who offer up intercessory prayers are a special class of “super-Christians,” called by God to a specific ministry of intercession. The Bible is clear that all Christians are called to be intercessors (1 Tim 2:1-2). The only thing we need to learn to move in the intercessory prayers that God hears is to selflessly move in to pray the prayer of the Spirit, which can be a empowered prayer that comes in our natural language we know or it comes in tongues easily to those who receive "the gift of the Holy Spirit or the Baptism in the Holy Spirit" (Eph 6:18-19; Luke 11:13; Acts 2:4, 38-39; 19:2, 6) by asking Jesus to give them that which He has promised in His Word (Matt 3:11; John 7:37-39; 14:16; Luke 24:49).

Paul sought prayer on his behalf from all the Roman believers (Romans 15:30). He also urged the Colossians and Ephesians to intercede for him and his preaching to come out with the power of God to touch the hearts of the hearers and change their lives for eternity (Col 4:2-3; Eph 6:18-20). The simple believers of the Church interceded for Apostle Peter who was on death sentence, hearing their prayers God miraculously and supernaturally sent an angel to free the apostle and lead him to those who were in prayer for him, to make them know that God hears the intercession of all believers who pray in the will of God for His Glory (Acts 12:5, 11-12). This is not a privilege limited to an exclusive Christian elite or a special group of people who have a intercessory gift; Note that nowhere in the Bible we see biblical request for intercession to a certain group of people who could intercede in the New Testament times. Jesus has clearly said that the least of the saint in our New Testament time has the Kingdom of God within and therefore is greater than the greatest prophet of the Old Testament times who is none other than John the Baptist (Matt 11:11-12). Even the least of the least saint has been given the Holy Spirit personally within them at all times in our New Testament times which was not available during the Old Testament period, so God has to specially give the prophets an unction to intercede during the Old Testament times so that when they fail to intercede with the gift God had given them specially, hence they were held accountable for it and it was considered a sin by God because people perished by their lack of intercession (Heb 13:5; 1 Sam 19:23-24; 12:23; Luke 12:48). The idea of intercession as the privilege and calling of only some Christians is without Biblical basis of the Scriptural revelation, and worse that can happen through such wrong thinking is the snare of pride and a sense of superiority that comes to them where God starts to resist them as time goes on without change in such people's lives. So to intercede in prayer is the command given to to all of us who are believers who have the Holy Spirit within us when we were born again, who gives us His empowered prayers and reveals thoughts of God's will within our mind to help us overcome our weakness to pray the prayer that God hears which is in His will (Rom 8:26-27; 1 John 3:20-23; 5:14-15; James 1:5-8). The Holy Spirit understand the thoughts of God which are in His will and reveals it to Jesus (John 16:15, 13-14), who again intercedes for us by forming the right prayer for it which will get answers from God (Rom 8:34), the Holy Spirit then again takes those perfect prayers of Jesus and prays to intercede within us those prayers which are received by God and answered back to all humanity in every part of the world (Rom 8:23, 26-27).

So why wait, start to offer from today your Spirit empowered and uttered intercessory prayers for : all in authority (1 Timothy 2:2); ministers (Philippians 1:19); Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6); friends (Job 42:8); fellow countrymen (Romans 10:1); the sick (James 5:14); enemies (Jeremiah 29:7); those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44); those who forsake us (2 Timothy 4:16); and all men who need salvation (1 Timothy 2:1). Prayer is a skill that is learned by us easily in doing rather in hearing about it. When ever you see any person, within your heart start to speak to God in your thoughts to meet their needs, save them from sin, heal their sickness, give them love if they feel rejection, help you meet their need tangibly if possible, pray for their joy and peace, etc... because of what Jesus has already done for them on the Cross....with this will start your intercessory life of prayer. Believe me, the greatest prayer of intercession starts with revealing and asking God with our thoughts, which then can go on increasing in different types, methods and ways of prayer which we can learn to do further and further as we keep graduating in higher plane in the school of prayer that the Holy Spirit conducts in our Christian life.

A wonderful model of intercessory prayer is found in Daniel 9. It has all the elements of true intercessory prayer. It is in response to the Word (v. 2); characterized by fervency (v. 3) and self-denial (v. 4); identified unselfishly with God’s people (v. 5); strengthened by confession (v. 5-15); dependent on God’s character (vv. 4, 7, 9, 15); and has as its goal God’s glory (vv. 16-19). When we take this prayer of Daniel as a model prayer, we begin to see that he did not say, 'O Lord by my righteous life that I have lived, answer me my Lord, no by no means, but rather identifying himself along with all their people as one who sinned before Him, he realized that they were not worthy to receive His mercy, he understood that God answers only humility in heart therefore through it he appealed to God and received God's answer promptly....' We as the children of God should appeal always in our intercessory prayer to God through the worthiness of Jesus and receive His answers promptly with out our self effort (Acts 3:12, 16). Always when answers come to us or to others through God's miraculous intervention in Jesus name through our intercessory prayers, give all the glory back to God who deserves it all (Psa 115:1; Luke 17:18; 1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:23, 17). As intercessory prayer is self-less, it takes no glory for what God does but instead without fail will give all the glory back to God to whom it belongs. Praise the Lord!

So may the Lord help us all to do intercessory prayers all the time and be an intercessor along with our Jesus who is our lead intercessor with whom we join and alter the destiny of the entire humanity on earth. Here is a promise given to us that our intercessory prayer will be answered if we understand His High priesthood and pray with Him, "Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." (Heb 7:25). In other words, God is able to save all humanity from all problems through us if we come to Him by joining hands with Jesus to pray the exact intercessory prayer that He has for each of those situations in God's will. So stop procrastinating and start immediately your intercessory prayer to turn the world upside down for Jesus (Acts 17:6). Hallelujah!

Much Blessings....

Were Women Allowed To Serve God In The Old Testament?

What Did The Serving Women Do At The Door Of The Tabernacle Of Meeting?

Question : Please explain Exodus 38:8?

Answer : Greetings in Jesus wonderful name! Here is the verse you have asked for, "He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze, from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting." (Exod 38:8). The way I see this verse is through the eyes of the New Testament because Old Testament conceals the New Testament, the New Testament reveals the Old Testament. We sure know that God called two main leaders named "Bezalel" and "Aholiab" to design and to build in all the manner of workmanship to build the Tabernacle during the time of Moses, to build it in the way the Lord wanted it to be done for His Glory (Exo 31:1-11). But these two could never finish such a great work without people helping them to do it, so along with them God had "put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans" to complete it as God has commanded previously (Exo 31:6). We know that women are usually the most artistic, talented and gifted artisans in stitching clothes according to the Bible because it puts this skill as one of main thing for her to be qualified as the Virtuous Wife or Woman of Excellence that the Book of Proverbs speaks about (Prov 31:13, 22, 24). So naturally as a part of the team many artistic women whom the Spirit of God filled with in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship also partook in helping these two leaders who built the Tabernacle (Exod 28:2-4). These women were called as "serving women" who were devoted in doing the work of the Lord. Seeing these women serving the Lord, many more who were fully devoted must have joined with these women to do the daily chores of the need of the Tabernacle, like provide water, clean the place, devotedly worship God and pray to Him and do what ever day to day humble job was required of them as a way of devoted service of worship towards the Lord, and that is why we see them "assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting" during the erection of it, and then later to help the Levites and the priests in continuing their work for the Lord every new day unhindered by any need that arises (Exo 38:8). This became a tradition that continued because we see them still serving nearly 400 years later at the "entrance to the tent of meeting" at the time of Eli the Priest who raised Samuel to become a Prophet in the house of God, who later became as God's mouth piece in the nation of Israel (1 Sam 2:22; 3:1-11, 19-21; Exo 16:35; Acts 13:21). In other words, we see no women ordained officially as a Levite or in a Priestly capacity in doing the work of the Lord anywhere in the Bible, but inferring in to the above Scripture we find that they were unofficially given the privilege of serving God in the Tabernacle of the outer court according to the gifts and callings they exhibited along with their complete devotion towards the Lord.

We know how much important a mirror is to a women, in those days there were no glass mirror like our days but they were using high quality polished bronze as mirror to see their faces and external beauty. People say, 'Mirror changes the way Women view themselves' but these holy women who saw God work through them found that it is God who reflected the dirt of their heart and made them clean themselves in humility to look beyond the external to see their inner beauty and be satisfied with that calm and quiet spirit which they displayed before Him through their work in His Presence (1 Peter 3:3-6). These devoted women artisans who were in love with God for giving them a privilege to serve Him to build His place of residence among them were so overwhelmed that when they heard from their leaders "Bezalel" and "Aholiab" about God's instruction to them regarding building a bornze basin that will be kept for all the Levites and Priests to purify themselves before entering the inner court of the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies, immediately they came forward to part with their most precious possession which were their highly polished bronze mirrors and gave it sacrificially to be made as the bronze basin that will hold the water for cleansing. This tradition of women particularly offering their own precious possession, skill and devotion to the Lord have given them a permanent place to work for God in like manner for generations down the line at the door of the Tabernacle. How do we know that for sure about the above fact?

Exod 25:3 says that the list of materials that could be donated included a request for quantities of bronze. Exod 38:29-31 (cf. 25:3; 35:5) says that the response to this request was overwhelming and that two and a half tons of bronze were donated. But, interestingly, the bronze basin is not listed amongst the items made from this stockpile of donated bronze. Separate to the general bronze donations were the mirrors donated by the ministering women. Both biblical and archaeological evidence shows that ancient mirrors were made from burnished metal, not glass. So the mirrors supplied by the women were made of highly polished bronze (Job 37:18). At this point I want to remind you that the bronze basin is the only item in the tabernacle that was made from gender specific donations because the Bible says in Exod 35:22, 24 and 29: “And the men came in together with the women, every one willing of heart; they brought in bracelets, and nose rings, and rings, and jewels, every gold article...every one bringing an offering of silver and bronze” … “and every man and woman whose hearts impelled them brought a voluntary offering to the Lord,” this inclusion (from v. 22 to v. 29) suggests that women, no less than men, had access to all materials that could be contributed independently and they willingly gave it all to the Lord.

What can we learn from the above exposition of Exod 38:8 :

1) God calls whomever He wants and fills them with His Spirit in wisdom, understanding, knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to serve Him the way He wants. God forbidding women from doing priestly and levitical work is a principle that He has given for all to keep in the law of Moses but it cannot be a rule to stop any women from serving Him the way He has called and gifted them (Acts 2:17-18; Exod 28:3). We see this above context in the light of God's heart towards women in His service, where God has accepted a gender specific offering just to prove to all people that He is never biased towards any women particularly but loves men and women equally to empower them to serve Him.

2) God wants both men and women to offer themselves as a living sacrifice to become holy and acceptable to God and do a reasonable service to Him (Rom 12:1). The women whom we have seen above were so devoted and were in love with God that they readily parted with the most precious possession that they possessed [i.e. their Mirrors] and sacrificed it to God which God accepted and used it for one of the most sacred article in the tabernacle which was the bronze basin in which the Levites washed themselves before ministering to people. In the New Testament, as we live a life of faith and offer ourselves sacrificially to God and part with the most precious things of our lives by keeping God first and committing it all in to God's hands, God will use us for His own service to save souls and be wise (Heb 11:6; Luke 14:26; Matt 4:19; Prov 11:30).

3) Women were never denied a place in God's ministry, rather they are put as managers of the home who need to minister to the needs of the home first (1 Tim 2:9-15; 5:14; 1 Cor 14:34-36), and then to other women (Tit 2:3-5), and then finally to the general public of both men and women, if they are gifted and empowered by God for such a thing in an unofficial capacity under the guidance of senior leaders or their own husband within the House of God [i.e. but without exercising authority over men (1 Tim 2:12)] (1 Cor 11:5; Rom 16:1-2, 3). This is the reason during creation of humans, God first created Adam and then added Eve to complete the family hierarchy which is the basic unit that can be applied to a larger setting of the House of God if that basic unit is exemplary and an example for all others in its operation (1 Tim 3:4-5). And after the fall of humanity in to sin, God first asked Adam and made Him accountable for his failure first even though it was Eve who first fell in to sin and then later asked Eve about it because Adam was expected by God to teach his wife all that He taught and commanded him personally, and thus keep her under his care and away from temptation through his spiritual guidance and protection (Gen 2:16-18; 3:8-19; 2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:14; Rom 5:12). This proves that there is no law against women to serve in a spiritual capacity for the edification of the Church, but God set a principle that unless He first empowers a women and wants them to be used in that capacity of edification to the Body of Christ or as having one or more calling of the fivefold ministry (Eph 4:11-16; Acts 2:17-18), God wants them to first naturally take care of their home and then the women folks through their spiritual guidance to them.

4) The bronze basin is first mentioned when it is commissioned by God in Exod 30:18. Lev 8:4-7 says that priests were washed all over at the Bronze basin before being clothed with priestly garments and anointed. Exod 40:31 says that the priest must do this before entering the Tent of Meeting or sacrificing on the altar anytime. This washing ritual was a never ending law that was to continue from generation to generation. The penalty for non-compliance was death (Exod 30:21). The position of the basin right beside the door of the Tabernacle is probably so the priests cannot miss this ritual (Exod 30:18), and is made of highly reflective bronze perhaps for the same reason. The women are said to tsaba.Heb’ ‘serve/minister’ near the door of the Tabernacle. It is at the door that much ritual activity took place. Exod 30:18-19 tells us that the priests prepared the sacrifices and offered them on the bronze altar near the door. We know that the serving women's offering of their bronze mirrors was used greatly in a precious way to express God's approval of these women's service to Him in a positive way, but in the account of bronze censers of Korah, the Levite men, it was used to plate the Altar to reveal God's wrath against people without faith who respect not His appointment and calling to reject His authority lightly, this reveals the negative consequence of sin to show that God respects a person not by gender but by their faith and heart devotion towards Him (Num 16:38-40).

5) Tsaba’ is used to describe the women’s service in Exod 38:8 and 1 Sam 2:22. In the majority of other cases where tsaba’ appears in the Hebrew Bible it means “to go forth, as a soldier, to war” (Num 31:7; Isa 29:7, 8; 31:4 and Zech 14:12), and along these lines tsaba’ is often attached to God’s military name -YHWH tsabot – meaning “the Lord of hosts”. But, in the context of Exod 38:8 this particular meaning does not fit. The women do not appear to be engaged in warfare or guarding the door of the Tabernacle. So is tsaba’ used in another way in the Hebrew Bible? Yes it is. Tsaba’ is also used to describe the period of indentured service for the Levites in and around the tabernacle in Num 4:23, 35, 39, 43 and 8:24. It describes the duty performed by Aaron’s descendants, the Kohathites, Gershonites and Merarites who minister in the Tabernacle. Each of these groups had different tasks. This gives us a clear idea of how the serving women at the door of the Tabernacle ministered to do their service as a part of the sacred service to God, in a unofficial and unnamed Levitical role. We see in Paul the apostles writing that He urges the Church to honor the true widows and women who serve humbly to be supported financially by the Church (1 Tim 5:3-16). We see in the past time that so many women of God like Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36-38), Miriam the prophetess and the sister of Aaron led the women of Israel to praise and worship the Lord with song, music and dance, Deborah was a prophetess and she was judging Israel, Prophet Isaiah himself married a prophetess (Isa 8:3) and Huldah was a prophetess who were all empowered by God to do spiritual warfare in prayer and help the nation of Israel, and the same has happened in the Church for the devoted women to serve God in an unofficial capacity [i.e. not as official minister of God over men specifically] through their service towards God in whatever way they have been called and empowered by God to work for Him. Praise the Lord!

6) The sacrificial offering of women means much to God because Jesus appreciated and spoke greatly of a widows offering of just the last two coins because she had given her all to God sacrificially by faith in the constant provision of God (Mark 12:42), Jesus allowed the women to support his ministry through their financial giving and did not feel ashamed because of receiving from them or stopped them from giving to Him (Luke 8:2-3), Jesus used a woman named Mary Magdalene to send the good news of His resurrection to all His disciples (John 20:17-18), Junia was a women apostle of great reputation and maturity in the Lord during the time of Paul's apostolic ministry (Rom 16:7), Phoebe was a woman servant of the Church and ministered to the saints of God (Rom 16:1-2), Persis was a beloved Sister who labored much in the Lord according to Apostle Paul (Rom 16:12), Priscilla the wife of Aquila were both bold fellow workers of the gospel in Christ Jesus (Rom 16:3-4), etc... thus Women are called by God to do different tasks for Him, so nobody should judge a person based on gender to keep them away from serving God in the Church if they are really called by God for a particular service even though it might be very unconventional for them to do it.

Much Blessings....

What About The Salvation Of The Brain Dead Person Who Lives By Ventilator, Would They Have Been Saved If They Were Given One Last Chance By God At That Critical Time?

After A Person Is Brain Dead And Then Put On Ventilator, Will A Person's Spirit Still Be There Within Him?

Question : Praise God. Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to you all. Hope you are fine and in good health as your soul prospers. We all are fine by the grace of God. I want to ask question and hope God will bring the answer through you. My question is "When the brain death occurs, suppose patient is on the ventilator machine , will his spirit is with him while he is on ventilator?" In the medical term brain death is something that his brain is dead but body is working on the ventilator machine. Just because this machine gives artificial breath, their life prolongs. Some times many days patients are kept on ventilator until a decision is taken by the medical specialists and their family to stop the machine finally and let them die finally. Once this is done, later after few minutes he or she is declared dead. How about their soul life, if they die without knowing. How they might be made accountable by God for not able to believe Him because of their inability to think and clearly accept God at the last moment of their lives in which they could have believed and received salvation if their conscious life has been there? In the case of a believer dying like that, they also could have repented of their sinful indulgence to God before dying. Who knows? May God give you insight and bring the answer for His glory. God bless you !

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus Wonderful name! Praise the Lord! Yes we are all fine by the grace of God and He is indeed good to all of us because we trust in Him. He makes our soul prosper like a "watered garden" as we extend our soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul spiritually by supplying His Word as a food for their soul (Isa 58:10-12). Praise the Lord that He is keeping you all fine and fit for His Glory! Yes indeed, "there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets" (Dan 2:28), who has promised to reveal all the things which are revealed and hidden as gold and diamond deep within His heart, which He also wants to make us understand if we sincerely desire His counsel to walk in this earthly life through His Word which He has honored even above His mighty name (Deut 29:29; Psa 138:2). I believe that He will give us understanding in this matter!

A medical ventilator (or simply ventilator in context) is a machine designed to mechanically move breathable air into and out of the lungs, to provide the mechanism of breathing for a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently.

God has prohibited the Israelites not to eat the blood of all living things because the "blood sustains its life" and therefore God considered it as a sacred thing (Lev 17:14). The life of the flesh that surrounds our body is in the blood for the life to sustain within it (Lev 17:11). In another place in Deut 12:23 God says about animals meat by saying, "....Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat." The above verse gives us a clear picture where life is hidden within animals, the blood is the life and that life should not be considered lightly because God is the one who has put the life within the meat of animals so that its sacredness should not be defiled by anybody eating the life blood with the meat of animals.

We and all the animals were created on the sixth day in which God created us all (Gen 1:24-28, 31). The only difference between us humans and the animals are that we have been breathed personally by God to put within us His Spirit within our nostrils, while the animals breathe were put within them supernaturally by God's spoken word without ever touching them or coming in to contact with them personally (Gen 2:7). In other words, if man does not connect to God to understand his unique likeness of God, he slides in to a state of living life like an animal on earth. According to God He has clearly instructed Noah to feel free to eat all flesh of animals and birds after the flood, but without "its blood" because in it is "its life" (Gen 9:3-4), and then warned about spilling the life blood of humans on earth which demands a bill for the debt amount that is due to be paid to God by both animals and humans because of the holy sacredness of the blood of humans in which the soul life of them is sustained in the exact likeness of the image of God. God has surely put that judgment for killing the life of humans with in the direct judgmental institution of Himself to fulfill the vengeance against the persons who kill a human who is in the image of God (Gen 9:5-6). In other words, our soul once separates itself from our body by the death of the life within our living cells with in our body, it is then preserved by God under His very supervision because of His supernatural vision and hope to raise us up one day in Rapture with a glorious body that He has prepared for us already in His mind (Rev 6:9-11; Rom 8:20; 1 Cor 15:51-54). Flesh and blood is in our present earthly body, but flesh and bones will only be in our future glorious body which Jesus demonstrated to His disciples after His resurrection. The Spirit of God will directly supply nourishing life to the glorious body instead of the present blood to which the Spirit supplies life by sustaining the breath of God in it (1 Cor 15:42-49, 50; Luke 24:36-43). Now God is working with man in partnership to sustain his life within their body. But then in the glorious body God's life will sustain the new man's life directly and eternally. We now know that if a person gets in to accident, the first thing a para-medic will try to do is to stop the blood flow out of their body and will try to infuse the blood of the same group in to them to sustain their life within their body or else that accident victim will die even before reaching the hospital for medical care. In other words, now God has chosen voluntarily not to work without us humans to sustain our lives because of His covenant with man in giving them the dominion to rule over the earth during creation (Gen 1:26; Psa 115:16), and we cannot work to save someone's life without God showing mercy to sustain them in their sickbed (Psa 68:20; Php 2:27). Now nothing is impossible as we humans will learn to work in partnership along with God even in saving lives from dying before His appointed time for them comes (Matt 19:26). Jesus Himself expressed that in medical profession it is God and man working together to save a man's life from sickness and death before God's appointed time for Him to die comes at the right time (Matt 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31; Psa 68:20; Heb 9:27). We know that God has already decided the length of our lives, He knows how many months we will live, where we should live, and we are not given a minute longer than His pre-appointed time for us in His perfect will, but because of our lack of co-operation with God we might die before time due to parking ourselves outside of the perfect will of God (Job 14:5, 14; Acts 17:26).

God says in the Bible, "6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. 7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." (Eccl 12:6-7). This means God wants all humans to remember Him and call upon Him when they have enough consciousness and time to think about Him and His great salvation from sin. Or else God symbolically says in the above verse that when the blood stops flowing within veins actively, when the mind stops working from having self consciousness, when the fountain of blood pot which is the heart that pumps it and purifies it all to keep it flowing get shattered because of high pressure or heart attack, then the spirit within us which works as the wheel that brings fresh water and understanding from God to our life gets broken and separated from the body once and for all time to take away the soul with it, then God says our body returns to the dust of the earth from which it had come, and our spirit returns to the jurisdiction of God who has initially given it to us when we were born in our Mother's womb. God confirmed the above point to say, "human beings, life breath is in their nostrils...." (Isa 2:22, ISV). I mean until naturally or mechanically the breathable air goes into and out of the lungs, the life of any person will be sustained to keep the spirit and soul together within the body, but once the breathable air stops in our lungs the human dies.

Usually some preachers and teachers of the Word of God say to the people who they expect to respond to their gospel message by saying, give your heart to God. One person whom I know jokingly asked me, why preachers say every time, 'Give you heart to God, give your heart to God...what does the heart do except pump the blood of people?' I said to him, the Bible says that the life of a person is in the blood of people, so in a way when they plead people to give their heart to God, they are asking them to give their life in to the hands of God to take over from that point of time and save them from their impurity, sin and self. This particular person never opened his mouth again to ask the same because he understood that he was wrong in joking about a sacred thing.

Brain death can be confusing, particularly for families who are confronted with the sudden death of someone they love because a brain dead person on a ventilator can feel warm to the touch and can look "alive and well," when in fact they are traveling very fast towards the point of no return in this life to enter in to the afterlife, but in truth they are alive physically. The heart is still beating and the ventilator is pushing oxygen and air into the lungs making the person's chest rise and fall to make the life of that person to sustain within the body as much as possible.

In livescience.com the writer Rachael Rettner has written in a article named "Life After Brain Death: Is the Body Still 'Alive'?" saying that, "A person is considered brain-dead when he or she no longer has any neurological activity in the brain or brain stem — meaning no electrical impulses are being sent between brain cells. Doctors perform a number of tests to determine whether someone is brain-dead, one of which checks whether the individual can initiate his or her own breath, a very primitive reflex carried out by the brain stem. The heart's intrinsic electrical system can keep the organ beating for a short time after a person becomes brain-dead — in fact, the heart can even beat outside the body. But without a ventilator to keep blood and oxygen moving, this beating would stop very quickly, usually in less than an hour. With just a ventilator, some biological processes — including kidney and gastric functions — can continue for about a week....The body of a brain-dead person is usually not supported for very long. Doctors sometimes provide support (in the form of a ventilator, hormones, fluids, etc.) for several days if the organs will be used for donation, or if the family needs more time to say good-bye...Today, with ventilators, blood-pressure augmentation and hormones, the body of a brain-dead person could, in theory, be kept functioning for a long time, perhaps indefinitely, Greene-Chandos said. But with time, Greene-Chandos added, the body of a brain-dead person becomes increasingly difficult to maintain, and the tissue is at high risk for infection."

Thus from the above discussion we come to understand that whether it is natural sustaining of the life by the body itself or artificially sustained breathing through a ventilator or other modern method of retaining life, the soul leaves the body only when the whole body of the person shuts down. Starting with the heart it is a process where death continues further up to cellular level in which it takes some time to disintegrate after which the death of a person completely occurs. However, once the brain stem has permanently stopped functioning, the medical community believes that there's no way of reversing it and the heart will eventually stop beating, even if a ventilator continues to be used. After brain death, it is said that it is not possible for someone to remain conscious because brain stem is responsible for regulating most of the body's automatic functions like breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, swallowing that are essential for life.

I believe doctor's extending life artificially may not be appropriate in every case all the time without medical basis of recovery, doctors should apply all available methods if they decide to resuscitate and try the best to bring back a person. If it is not possible, it is better for them to let go in to the Creator's hands who has given that life as a gift to that person, and by the way it should never be done without the doctor's trying their best if there is any possibility of resuscitation.

We see that in the New Testament "...when Jesus had cried -out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit." (Matt 27:50, cf. Jn 19:30 and Acts 7:59, Luke 8:55, II Cor. 5:8). When someone dies there is a separation of the spirit/soul from that person's body. We see in the New Testament where the great apostle Paul said, "May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thess. 5:23b). The above verse clearly conveys that man is a tripartite being, so there is a place where a human being decides to give up one's life where actually the spirit gives up fighting to survive and the soul leaves the body to go in to the Creator's hands of control who had given it (Prov 18:14; Acts 7:59-60). At death the unity of the tripartite individual is disrupted, thus separating the physical from the spiritual parts where the physical body dies and disintegrates, the soul and the spirit together as one is then kept under the jurisdiction of God (Matt 10:28; 2 Cor 4:16; Eccl 12:7; 9:10; Cross.Ref Gen 35:18; Luke 1:46-47; Rev 6:9-11; 1 Cor 6:17; 2 Cor 5:6-8; Luke 8:55; Ezek 18:4; Psa 6:5; 115:17; 146:4; 104:29-30). Every human after his physical death, their soul will either enjoy God if they are saved by His salvation or will horribly realize that they have lost for eternity the goodness of the privilege of living with the goodness of the Lord God to be isolated and lonely without His beautiful Presence forever (Psa 35:9; 27:13; Luke 16:23-24). This disruption is eventually restored to all people in either the resurrection of believers if a person is saved or the resurrection of the lost if that person is unsaved (John 5:21, 28-29; 6:39-40, 44; 1 Cor 15:21; 1 Thess 4:14-17; Rev 20:12-15). The saved will live after their resurrection, with the Lord in New Jerusalem, then after the Millennium rule of Jesus along with His saints on this present earth, then they will live forever in the New Heaven and New Earth which God has prepared for them eternally (Rev 21:1-4). But the unsaved will rise up in their physical bodies to go in to the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels originally, to be without God and His Presence for eternity ahead because of their own choice which they had taken on earth when they were alive and had the ability and consciousness to take a decision for Christ, which will make them stay doomed there for eternity without God and His goodness (Rev 20:11-14, 15; Matt 25:41; 10:28; Mark 9:43-48). 

Death is more than the lack of readings on an electroencephalogram (EEG) that monitors the brain activity, it involves the departure of the person's spirit from this life to another realm of the supernatural unknown world of God. There are certain factors according to the Bible that confirms a person has died, and then their spirit and soul have departed together, they are the following :

1) The Bible says that, "...Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age." (Gen. 25:8, cf. Gen. 49:33; Job 27:3; Luke 23:46; Mark 15:37). This shows that respiration failure or the heart stops before a person dies for His spirit and soul to leave the body officially according to God. So the ventilator must be removed officially, only then we can truly determine that the person who is critical have already indeed taken their last breath to no more be able to return to brain reactivity by failure of the heart (Job 10:21; Psa 27:13).

2) As we already discussed in details, the Bible says, "Because the life of every creature is its blood." (Lev. 17:14; cf. Gen. 4:10; 9:4-6; Deut. 12:33; Acts 15:29; Rev. 16:3) the scriptural focus for life in the body is not the brain but rather the blood. Breathing or respiration takes away the waste C02 gas from the blood and replenishes it with life giving oxygen, a process that is mandatory to the survival of the body. The blood, through the circulatory system cleanses, nourishes, and brings disease antibodies and clotting agents to every part of the body. So once when the cell structure starts to disintegrate rapidly, then we know that life giving blood has failed to reach the cells and members of the body to die and shut down one system of the body after the other to cause a total shut down of life in a few minutes rapidly. In Revelation 16:3 we find an important observation. "The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died." (see also Ex. 7:17,18,21). This above verse clearly describes that the blood of a dead person cannot nourish life to the body instead it rots very soon to cause extensive contamination and decay within the place where it is present.

3) The Bible says, "If it were [God's]...intention and He withdrew his spirit and breath, all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust." (Job 34:14,15, cf. Gen. 2:7, 3:19, Ps. 104:29). This above verse clearly shows that even though our human physicians and para-medics determine that the life within the body is no more when the brain activity shuts down, yet according to God He determines a person to be dead only when his spirit and breath stops naturally or artificially with its activity in the body during which time it will also leave the body. A person who is truly dead will exhibit it naturally by the heart stopping, the vascular system collapsing, respiration halting, the color of their body turning bluish or gray, body temperature approaching room temperature, all reflex movements disappearing from it completely. In a short time rigor mortis [i.e. Latin: rigor "stiffness", mortis "of death": which means officially a dead corpse with no sign of life or movement but only a rapid process of decay] sets in, followed by all the usual signs that death has happened which are increase in weight, a very bad deathly odour, etc..will be seen as time passes on. As the Bible says, this decay is the process when the body which has been formed with the dust of the earth returns to the earth by becoming dust again. In any case where a comatose individual is still alive, while his or her future is uncertain, we must be patient and help those who are weak (Romans 15:1). So the bottom line is that Physicians who honor the sanctity of human life must wait for the completion of dying lest they would do harm to the human life that is still present.

4) The prophet Zechariah spoke of Jehovah, Who “stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him” (Zech 12:1). In some fashion, then, God has placed within man a portion of His own essence—in the sense that man possesses a spirit that will never die. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul wrote: “...but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day,” thus separating the physical entity from the spiritual entity that separates them at death. In James 2:26, James observed that “the body apart from the spirit is dead.” Thus in death the spirit of a human departs with the soul of him that has within it the conscious information of a whole life lived out on earth, just like as the black-box of a plane has information regarding the life of a plane before it crashed and went bust. In other words we can say, that if the body is alive, according to God who spoke through James the apostle, the spirit is present. When the spirit is present, Is the person who is ill or might be ready to die is still alive? Yes. The spirit and soul cannot be separated according to the Bible and it will be done only on the day of last day of judgment by God through the Word of God (Heb 4:12; John 12:47-48). So when a spirit and soul of a person is present within the body even though they might even be brain dead, God commands us, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13; Mark 10:19), and it has never been revoked back or rescinded to remind us all that a person has never originally died until they become breathless naturally even after ventilator has been used and all the necessities supplied for the life with the body to sustain itself as much as possible. A person who is dying is still alive, even a moment before death, and must be treated as such. King David pleaded with God: “Forsake me not when my strength fails” (Psa 71:9), would not the person who is dying if they were able to speak to the physician or para-medic would speak the same words to those who are helping them? Considering these things, medics should always give priority to life and life at all cost rather than death.

5) God’s Word tells us that death is an appointment by God to meet Him face to face under God's jurisdiction in heaven if they are believer (Php 1:21; 2 Cor 5:8; 1 Thess 4:16-17), or Hades where a unsaved soul is kept by God until the white throne judgment that will take place, after the destruction of the present earth and all that is in it through the fire of God (Luke 16:22-23; Peter 3:7; Rev 20:11-15), and is a earthly fact of life for all humans (Hebrews 9:27). Ecclesiastes 3:2 points out that there is “a time to be born, and a time to die.” At times, the laws of man are of little use, since what is legal may not be what is right in the eyes of God (Gen 9:6; Acts 4:19-20). Similarly, our instincts and insights may be of no use, since they often are clouded by pain or emotion which is expected by God to be given to Him in exchange for His peace and joy to rule over our lives in crisis (1 Peter 5:7; Php 4:6-7). Therefore, we must prayerfully request the wisdom that God has promised to give to those who ask in order to do the right thing as a medic, para-medic and family members who is stressed out financially and emotionally in caring long enough for our dying loved ones (James 1:5). Mature Christians understand that through suffering, we can inherit great reward from God and also can become blessed to be a blessing to others who are going through similar trails in their lives (James 1:2-4; 2 Cor 1:3-7). It is always important to give dignity to the human life before we can allow them to die naturally and let them go in to the hands of God.

Regarding the last moment repentance of a believer or a last moment salvation of a unbeliever is an uncertainty at any cost if they lose their consciousness and therefore are either at a vegetative state or a brain dead state, therefore God has already told in the Bible to all humans to remember their Creator in their days of their youth when they have so much time to think about God and ask Him for their salvation (Eccl 12:9). Every day of consciousness in a man's life is a day of opportunity that God has given that person to turn to Him, when all these times of mercies are wasted I don't think that person deserves a spectacular miracle and a extended time to take a decision for Christ, or even if given a extended time by God there is no guarantee that person will take a decision for Christ or will repent (2 Cor 6:1-2; Luke 16:31). As a righteous God and a righteous judge, God will never allow a person to go in to such a vegetative or unconscious state without giving them enough time for repentance from sin to receive salvation (Psa 7:11; Matt 5:45; Eccl 8:11). But at the same time, as God is a omniscient One which means all knowing God, he knows a person's end from the beginning and therefore if He had fore-seen an opportunity in which a unbeliever would get saved by believing and accepting Christ or a believer using their last moment to repent of their sins to get delivered from their wrong doing, He would have either done a miracle to give them consciousness for a time to get saved or would have extend their life by allowing them not to go in to that brain-dead state (Acts 15:18; Isa 45:21). God authenticates his omniscient existence by recounting the past and proclaiming the future in the present time (Isa 44:7). So it is better to praise God when we are conscious enough and spread the good news of the gospel through our words and our lives, because that is the best work we can do now, once dead we cannot do that and no turning back is ever available except to live forever the appointed heavenly life where the reward of our already lived out earthly life will only be recounted and rewarded back in honor and glory, to live for eternity to be just like that with no change in hierarchy or promotion. We can only be changed again to live for eternity with God if we are saved, or receive the condemnation of hell fire to live without God if any human person has died unsaved (Psa 115:17; Isa 38:18-19; John 3:18-20; Mark 9:43-44; Heb 9:26-28). O Lord have mercy!!!!

Much Blessings....

According To Rev 22:19, Will Our Names Be Removed From The Book Of Life If We Use A Diluted Version Of Bible Translation?

If We Use NKJV - i.e..New King James Version Bible, Will God Remove Our Names From The Book Of Life?

Question : I have something I would like to send you, it shows the number of words deleted, removed and changed lines from the Word of God in New King James Version which by acronym we call as NKJV, it is approximately around 3500 words and in the same way in NIV which means New International Version of the Bible it is over 5000 words and the same happens in all the other newer versions much more than this, which is consistently happening more and more in our times. And as you know in Rev 22:19 God says those who change the word of this Book of prophecy from the Bible, I will remove their name from the Book of life. The promises there in are removed for such people. Thank you. What do you think about the above fact and interpretation of the Scripture that I pointed regarding it? Love & prayers always.

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name! For the warning that God will remove the names of those who add or remove the Word of God is exclusive to the Book of Revelation which is the last book of the Bible that has made the Canonized revelation of God to get closed through John the apostle who wrote it. It cannot be used to say that to other part of it that are translated to get a better understanding of Scripture. If you take this literally, what about the languages in which the Bible are translated and those who come to believe God and read through it? All those translations are also not perfect and the translators have used their own local genetic words to describe the original as close as possible. Will God remove the names of the believers and translators of the Bible just because they are not able to find the exact word for word from Greek and Hebrew Scripture? No, not at all. So the meaning of this following verse, "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Rev 22:19, KJV), does mean that we should add no more revelation or subtract from what has been finalized in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ which has been revealed to John the apostle at the end of the close of the first century in the island of Patmos, to no more be revealed until all things in it get fulfilled of what has been show to the world and the Church through John the apostle (Rev 1:1-3). The same things has been told in the law of Moses and has been fulfilled by Jesus after which it has become obsolete and are ready to be discarded for the Millennium Kingdom of Jesus Christ in which He will establish the New Covenant to the nation of Israel and give a principle book through the priest and judges to keep themselves clean and holy externally through it (Deut 4:2; Heb 8:13; Zech 12:10; Isa 2:3; 59:21; Mic 4:2; Jer 31:33 ). So to translate literally this verse is to take a out of context meaning that which the above Rev 22:19 verse did not intend. To understand the full context of the Rev 22:18-19, please refer to the following post I have written earlier : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2014/04/can-your-name-be-removed-from-book-of.html.

All the different translations of the Bible are given to us by God to be inspired with great understanding and different perspective of the translators understanding of the Word of God. But in case we have any doubt about its original context, we can always take the root word from dictionaries and lexicons to understand the context in a deeper way.

In that way as you say if we take, even KJV which means King James Version has some obscure and indefinite words which are translated not exact to the original Greek and Hebrew, this also is not perfect because even those were translated by human scholars of the early 17th Century. In that case all the Christians have to learn Greek for reading New Testament, and Hebrew for reading Old Testament books to literally not add or subtract any word from its original intended meaning.

Even the Gospel books that we have with us named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by four different writers with four different perspectives to give us all a wide area of understanding about what God wants to convey to us who see the life of Jesus the Christ our Lord and Savior through it. Each writer have used the same parables sometimes to reveal different spiritual meaning according to their perspectives. So the bottom line that God expected from them is not to use the same words, but the right context that He wanted to convey to the people regarding the truth that He wanted to reveal.

Our God is a God of perspective and He understands the motive of our heart and therefore He never will ask why we as Christians have not kept the letter of the Word but rather will always ask when we miss to keep the letter of the Spirit which is the understanding of the Scripture we have in our original understanding as revealed by the Spirit of God to us personally. Even the great Pharisees who kept the letter of the Word and have not kept the letter of the Spirit were the most rebuked and reproofed persons by Jesus for their hypocrisy in this regard (Mark 7:13; Matt 23:23). God is more concerned about our inner life of purity and obedience to His voice within us through our relationship with Him rather than just the external way of obedience to the word and understanding of it grammatically right (Matt 23:24-28; 1 Sam 15:22-23; John 5:39; 17:3). Being a teacher of the Word of God I do not in any way say that we can be careless about understanding the Word of God in its right context and therefore fail to receive the mighty blessing of God that comes through it, rather I emphasize that our understanding of Scripture should lead us to understand the personality of our Lord God in a better way, and as a result of it be close to Him in our heart relationship with Him which God intensely desires towards us.

In case we need to know whether a translation stays true to its context, you can use parallel Bible with different evangelical version such as KJV-King James Version, NKJV-New King James Version, NIV-New International Version, NLT-New Living Translation along with a concordance added in its middle section all together in its entirety to see the veracity of the words used and its context to know its accuracy and authenticity.

Thanks and Blessings.....