Word Of Wisdom Ministries
By Cheryl Arnold

It’s sort of an old-fashioned word. It’s a Biblical word; a Biblical concept no matter the word used.
God is always using this concept. I was listening to Missler and he made a wonderful observation concerning two other similar words.
He spoke of retaliation for a wrong done and retribution for a wrong done. The first is worldly and vindictive and the second is Godly and righteous. The first is a payback. The second is just.

So it brought another word to my mind: recompense. It is altogether different. I found myself asking the Lord for recompense and paused to wonder where that word came from. I didn’t know if I had the right word but God knew what I was asking for. I did not want a payback. I did not even want justice as that didn’t apply. But I longed for recompense. That is, I longed for God to come in and bless me in a big way that would undo the evil done to me and give me something to make up for the pain inflicted. That is beautiful recompense. God loves it. He says it all through His word. He says it is right to do it and He Longs to do it. My friends. He has done it so many times in my life.

It is a means of encouraging the believer who is the object of affliction from all angles on this walk. We are told that all who walk upright in Christ Jesus will be afflicted and oppressed. It’s so true. Now That won’t happen to worldly believers. They aren’t afflicted really because they are not at enmity with the world, therefore they don’t get punched as often. Maybe for doing wrong, they do but not by the enemy for doing what is right.

Retribution is something God returns upon the head of the offender, but recompense is a blessing, a gift that falls upon the afflicted, in payment for their affliction.

So remember that God recompenses the one who endures affliction. Look around…You’ll see it.

Recompense. It’s a beautiful word. Thank You Lord.

Amen.

Hebrews 12:10 says that God chastens His children for our profit, so that we MIGHT be partakers of His holiness. I show in the book how sanctification, righteousness, only comes through affliction which kills the flesh and leads to death to self-rule. He says here that very thing; that refining leads to holiness. We are not considered holy until self-rule is dethroned by death to self-rule. This is brought about through affliction, where self-will or self-rule is cut off…circumcised. Remember again that “we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14).

Hebrews 12:11 says that this chastening yields (produces) the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In other words, we don’t automatically dwell in Christ’s righteousness at salvation. We walk the walk of salvation and purify our hearts by submitting to affliction and crushing. This yields the fruit of righteousness because it allows Christ to be fully formed in us.
Remember that righteousness is attributed to us by way of faith, but this is sanctified faith and not saving faith. Abraham BELIEVED God; he was single-minded. Nehemiah honors Abraham is chapter 9:7 and says that God found Abram’s heart faithful before God. He walked in purity of heart toward God, not according to his own self-will. Nehemiah also notes that God changes his name, or gave him a new name. So He found Abram’s heart faithful toward God, and changed his name. Also, remember how God told Abram, after He made the covenant with him, that he should NOW, walk before Him and be PERFECT!

Let’s chew on all of this. More next time,

Amen!

Within the heart of every believer, God is trying to grow us up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The lukewarm believer who lives according to the old man, won’t grow much and therefore Jesus is not fully formed in them. They are saved. This is not salvation I am talking about but sanctification.

I was just reading in John how the Father loves the Son. The Son in me. He shares everything He does with the Son. The Son in me. Isn’t that great reason to let God form Him fully in me? Don’t you want God to share these things with you as a confidant? He will. Let the Son be fully formed in you and see!

Amen Lord!

I just read where Jonathan ate the honey after a weary battle and it brightened him up. In other words it gave him a boost. Was it just a rush of sugar? Was it just that he needed anything in his stomach? I don’t think so.

I know God. I know that His word is full of hidden treasures for the searcher. As I was reading I felt that this is a tip for us. Try it. When you are exhausted and feeling beat, grab a bit of honey. Make it real, good, natural honey… the kind Jonathan found. Let it brighten your countenance and heart. Let it revive you. What a sweet idea today!

God bless you as you study His word.

It’s pretty simple. In 1 Samuel, we see that after David is anointed King in Saul’s stead, he is invited to be Saul’s harp player. God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul because he had departed from God and had gone his own way.
So whenever the evil spirit tormented him, David played the harp in his court and Saul was soothed.

Then one day Goliath threatened Israel. David came forward (because at this point the Holy Spirit was upon him, he had been anointed king) and said I’ll kill him.

He went to Saul and told him. Saul gave David his armor and sent him on his way. David before leaving, declined the armor, because he had not proved the armor. Saul said, ok, go. Godspeed.

So Saul knew David.
Now after Goliath was killed by David, Saul said, who is this one who killed Goliath? Bring him to me. So David stood before Saul and Saul said who are you? David said I am Jesse’s son.

Now why did Saul treat David like he didn’t know him? I don’t know. But there are many possibilities. Easy possibilities.

1-Saul was at this point tormented by an evil spirit so he could easily be out of his mind and not making sense.
2-David was playing the harp in Sauls court when Saul was tormented so we don’t know how incoherent Saul was during these episodes. He often tried to kill David as he was playing the harp so Saul could have been totally possessed or totally oppressed. I don’t know if Saul was a believer. That is kind of left open. He fell away into disobedience. We do know that.
3-It’s entirely possible that Saul paid no attention whatsoever to who was playing the harp.
4-When David came to Saul to ask him if he could go kill Goliath, it’s possible that Saul paid no attention to the boy, or to what he looked like or who he was. That is very possible. We aren’t given any details but the bare minimum. It could have been a huge loud commotion with many distractions. I can easily see that.
Anyway, I can see a lot more possibilities. So why didn’t Saul recognize David? Many many possibilities.

God bless you as you study His word!

Am I as a believer tearing down strongholds of the enemy or am I helping him build them up?

If I have compromised with the world, with the old man nature in me, in even the tiniest way that is acceptable to the world’s way, but not acceptable to God, then I am building up Satan’s strongholds in my life.
The sad thing is this: if I am building up strongholds for Satan, my children and grandchildren will suffer. How do we know?

Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit, but a tree is known by its fruit. This is how. It’s very simple. It’s not confusing. God is not the author of confusion. He is very upfront and clear.

Look at your life. What surrounds you? Do you see good fruit? Do you see bad fruit? Don’t mistake God’s kindness and long suffering for weakness; or worse, for laxity. You absolutely will reap what you sow.
If you sow to the flesh then you will reap rotten fruit from the flesh. If you sow to the spirit then you will reap good fruit from the spirit.

God is not unholy. He does not put up with anything from the flesh. He said, “You thought I was altogether like you…”

Some believers imagine that God is unholy like they are. That is the reason we see so many tormented people who are never happy, never fulfilled, never joyful, always in chaos and tumult. Trouble. They live trouble. They breathe trouble, they create and inflict trouble.
Why? It’s because they have compromised with the world’s ways and are builders with Satan of strongholds. They are a curse to family and not a blessing.

God help us. Oh that believers would choose this day whom they would serve. Open eyes and ears to hear You Lord.

Amen.

And we see it. There is no mistake. The days do not just continue on as they always have. Jesus said there was coming a day where we had better have not just one weapon but two of them. In other words…armed to the hilt.

I can’t even think about, much less mention the evil I hear in the news today, 8/13/2020. But visions the Lord has given to me warning me that this day was coming, have come to pass. Truth in the news is very hard to find. Lies are everywhere. The father of lies, the devil, is beginning to have his day.

Why is he having his day? It is because we deserve it. The world has desired Satan and his ways and has rejected God and His ways. The Rapture of the faithful church and the Second Coming of Christ are at hand.

Paul said that in these days something very specific would happen as we see the day draw near: In 2 Thessalonians, he said that there was someone who was restraining evil. That someone is not identified. I do not think it is the Holy Spirit. This someone leaves. The Holy Spirit never leaves, but great Archangels do leave. I believe that this scripture could very well refer to a great archangel, who has always watched over the United States. He has been restraining evil from the beginning, when this nation was formed. That has allowed allowed Israel to be protected and the gospel to be preached throughout the whole world. No other nation has ever been able to let that happen.
But the United States in my opinion is Mystery Babylon. She is the harlot who rides the beast. No other nation in history has fit her description in the Bible. The United States does fit that description to the letter. A harlot is an adulteress. She once was but then is not. That’s the USA. We once were God’s but now are not. There is only a remnant left in her.
I believe that arch angel who had watch over this country, restraining evil while the gospel was being sent out over the whole world, has been removed. He has been removed because we have chosen Satan over God. We are that harlot.

That arch angel, I believe, has stepped on the full affects of Satan up until this day. He could only do so much. But that restraint is gone and we are left to ourselves. We have chosen it.

That is why we see unbelievable lies and wickedness daily, seemingly prevailing in our nation and hence the world. Satan is in charge. God has permitted it.

So what about the faithful believers who are here right now while Jesus tarries a bit before He removes the righteous from the evil to come, as Isaiah said? I have a thought:

God is allowing us to step up and be the church. This won’t delay the Lord’s coming and it will not change Bible prophecy, but it will gather up the last bits of believers before that great and terrible day that is fast approaching. This is my take.

I do not believe there is some great revival coming at this point. I don’t see it at all in Bible prophecy. I actually see that God is always in the process of gathering the sheep no matter what is going on in the world. He is doing that. But something else is happening alongside.

There is a great falling away. I see it alongside the gathering up. The apostasy I see is mind boggling. The church has yoga classes. Women preach everywhere. Homosexuality is embraced. It doesn’t get any worse. It doesn’t get any worse.

The acceptance of homosexuality is the final abhorrent behavior before God abandons a nation. We are consumed by it.

Nearly every other commercial on TV is forcing perverted homosexual behavior into the minds of people. They are targeting children. They are not selling a product. They are forming the innocent minds of sweet children to accept as good the most wicked of behaviors. Satan is doing this and myriads are following him off the cliff. The perversion in our day is unthinkable. Public school curriculum os forcing innocent babes to explore perversion. It is putrifying. God has had enough.

Doesn’t anyone see what is happening? God has removed children from schools. He has closed up false churches, forcing people to be on their own with their Bibles. He has shut down bars, casinos, Hollywood, wicked movies and shows, theaters. This is mercy.

True and single minded believers have the power to take the position of that restraining arch angel. Will we do it? Let’s be the church and pray and speak and admonish!! Will we stand up? Will we just sit silent. I truly don’t know.

I do know this. It seems to me like we very well could be in the middle of a 30 minute silence in heaven. If we realize and look hard at Bible prophecy events, we could be there. The rapture does not happen until the beast sets himself up as God in the temple of God. But do we actually have to have the brick and mortar temple so to speak? Could it be a tabernacle type of temple? Could there already be something like that here and we aren’t aware of it?

2 billion people have to first be killed as a result of the 4th seal but could that happen very quickly maybe with a Covid 19 vaccine? Could it happen with another bio weapon? Yes. Easily. We will have to see.
As for me, I will commit myself to prayer this day.
Pray with me. The Bible says, come quickly Lord Jesus! Notice the quickly.
Some have misinterpreted Revelation to think the Bride is telling Jesus to “come Lord”. But she is not talking to Jesus. She is telling all the world to come to the Lord before it’s too late. The church says to Jesus, Come QUICKLY, Lord.

Where are the admonishers? No where. Everyone wants peace at all costs. No one will fight. Remember 5 virgins of ten will be unprepared when the Lords comes to get us quickly. Half. Half will not go. HALF OF TRUE CHURCH WONT GO!!! HALF!!!

Come quickly Lord!

Amen!

This is the gospel in action. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, though without sin, became our sin, so we might become His righteousness. There is so much more here than we think. Can I show you?

Lord, permit me here, I pray, to expound upon this glorious secret. May all who can receive it, indeed receive it. Amen.

Keep the gospel in mind as I take you through the scriptures, to go a layer deeper than you have gone already. How do I know? Maybe you know it. But for those who don’t, come near to listen and see…

The gospel is this: Jesus Christ crucified, dead and buried and raised on the third day, paying the sin debt of the world. He died in my place and your place if you believe. If you have believed then you have repented of this sin and have asked forgiveness of the Lamb. Now immediately you are born a second time. The first birth for you was in the flesh. Dead. The second birth for you is a spirit birth. Alive. You must be born again to enter the Kingdom. Hallelujah.

With this unchangeable gospel in your heart let’s move on to deeper things. Hebrews 6 tells us to do such a thing. “ Leave the elementary principles of Christ now and move on to perfection”. Let’s go…

In Leviticus, we read that God told Moses how to distribute the land Israel was about to enter forever. In addition to all the cities they would dwell in, God said make sure you establish 48 cities of refuge. Why 48? I’ll have to ask God and search. I’m not sure. It might be unimportant, the number.

For those who don’t know about the cities of refuge, you should! I’d exhort you to go study that and know it and then read on here.
Roughly, the law required that there be a specific protocol for dealing with killing, with murder. If someone killed knowingly, for murder‘s sake, for hatred and intentionally, they were to be killed. No other result. Let’s get that out of the way. This represents a person who was born a sinner ( all people) but who rejected Jesus as the Savior. They are dead. There is nothing for them if they reject him. They are lost. These are the “vessels fit for destruction“ Paul mentions. God sees from before time began that these would reject Christ and are therefore murders and not unintentional killers. The former, intentionally choose death. The latter recognize they are sinners and run to safety. They did not murder. They are eligible for the City of Refuge.

But let’s look at the person who killed and it was an accident. This is a picture of the sinner who does repent and receive forgiveness through Jesus’ work on the cross. They are saved. So this is the person we are talking about here. This is so amazing.

For the person who has killed unintentionally, they are guilty. But not guilt leading to death. There is a refuge for them. Now this is the law I am going to give, so pay attention to that, but also know that this is a pattern for the salvation of the lost.

The one who has killed accidentally, he can run to one of 48 cities of refuge. If he gets to the city of refuge before the Avenger of Blood gets him and kills him, he is safe. The very fact that he runs to the city of refuge reveals a repentant heart. Repentance is required to enter Christ. The running to Him IS repentance. It is acknowledging that I need to be saved. We had better run fast, today is the day of our salvation. The Avenger of Blood is at our heels. As long as the one who has killed (the sinner) stays in that city, he is safe. If he leaves the city, the Avenger of Blood can kill him, if he finds him outside of the city of refuge. But, when the High Priest dies, he can return to his own land. He is free, restored, redeemed. Jesus is our Great High Priest.
So look at what God thinks of you: You did not intentionally decide to be born a sinner. You qualify to run to the city of refuge (Jesus Christ) and be safe. If you venture out of that city (can’t loose salvation, but can lose safety) you can be killed ( the sin unto death for the believer). Now the people who murder intentionally have no city of refuge. They are dead. There is no refuge for them. Why? They represent the ones who reject the remedy for their sin. They will not repent but remain in their sin by choice. Just like Judas chose to remain in his sin, though Jesus offers salvation to all.

God then says this to Moses: I was reading and this was underlined in my Bible years ago. God immediately dropped all of this into my heart as I looked at and marveled at this one sentence: Leviticus 35:33 says, “ the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him who shed it”. Now brace yourself for this glorious thing…

God is showing us in pattern why Jesus died on the cross for our sin. We can only be cleansed by the blood that shed our blood. Listen: I did not ask to be born. But born I was. I certainly did not choose to be born in sin. Born in sin and dead, I was. The fact that I was born in sin, dead, was not my fault God says. It was His doing. I won’t say fault because patterns break down and fail where they defame God. He cannot fail. But He can cause. Whose blood is it that can cleanse the blood shed, ie. my deadness in sin? Only the one who caused it. God. God is both the Avenger of Blood, AND the City of Refuge.
How did He cause my death? By creating me so that I could choose sin, and already in sin at birth by nature because of Adam.
God takes full responsibility for my death and sin. HE BECAME SIN, WHO KNEW NO SIN, THAT WE MIGHT BECOME HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Can we even hold this gigantic truth in our minds! Barely.

You, believer, can only be saved by the One who caused your death. God Almighty, in the person of Jesus Christ, God become flesh. How did He cause my death? By intentionally creating me with the power to choose sin. Free. He made me free, which means I absolutely will sin, whereby declaring Himself the causer or my death, my shed blood.
God in the garden told Adam, “God will provide Himself a sacrifice”. And He did.

What was that again, Lord? The land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it except by the blood of the one who shed it.

There is life in the blood!

Amen and glory to God forever!