With A Mighty Hand and A Stretched Out Arm

2 Chronicles 6 KJV   ¹³ For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold … and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven. ¹⁴ And said, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts: ²⁹ Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house: ³⁰ Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:) ³² Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name’s sake, and Thy Mighty Hand, and Thy Stretched Out Arm; if they come and pray in this house;³³ Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel,

“A Mighty Hand and A Stretched Out Arm” is used many times in the Bible to describe God’s powerful deeds during the Exodus: Exodus 6:6, Deuteronomy 4:34, 5:15, 7:19, 9:29, 11:2, 26:8, Psalms 132:12. The phrase is also used to describe other past or future mighty deeds of God, in the following sources: II Kings 17:36, Jeremiah 21:5, 27:5, 32:17, Ezekiel 20:33 20:34, II Chronicles 6:32. A shortened version (“with a strong hand”) is also used to refer to the Exodus: in Exodus 3:19, 6:1, 13:9, 13:16, 32:11 among other places.

God has been reminding me so much lately about that scripture and my redemption from bondage. Maybe it’s because of the way Jesus saved me again the second time in such a dramatic way that unless He had, I would have spent eternity in a devils hell, this I know. I believe God wants me to share my testimony to help others that have gone down a similar path. If you read the stats in my “Heaven Help Us” blog post you’ll see it is a far reaching problem, no group is immune to it.

The term “Saved” in the bible is described in 3 tenses, Past Present & Future. Some of the scriptures, many by the Apostle Paul, are described in this article,

https://www.simplybible.com/f066-sure-saved-in-three-tenses.htm

I guess before I tell of the second time Jesus saved me I should explain about the first. I was a Catholic until age 37, went to church most Sunday’s and honestly had a relationship with God for about 1 hour a week unless there was some crisis. My Dad and sisters were “Born Again” when I was about 26 and they kept telling me how I needed to be “Born Again” too. My Dad became a pastor and would try talking to me about that but I had a good come back line for him, “Daddy we say something just like the sinner’s prayer every Easter in church, what’s the difference.”

My family and friends thought I was a fine upstanding person for the most part and to put the icing on the cake one day my wife at the time even told me of a friend of ours, “he really values what you think about things because of your “integrity.” You see I had done a really good job of living a double life. On the outside I was a respectable person and the other a pervert with a growing addiction to pornography.  It all came crashing down one day and I took a huge fall off the pedestal people thought I might be on. I ruined the lives of my children and family in many ways BUT GOD for some reason I almost still can’t understand was there to pick me up.

My sister led me in saying the “sinner’s prayer” again but not like I did in the Catholic church each Easter. I really meant it this time. I desperately needed God to intervene in my life. I felt no different emotionally after saying it. I didn’t know God had REALLY took hold of me with  “A Mighty Hand and A Stretched Out Arm.”

My shame and guilt was so great I really couldn’t bear it and thought of taking the easy way out. I took my shrimp boat and docked it in a place I’d never been before. I wrote a note of apology to everyone I had hurt and turned on the 4 burners on the propane stove in my little 9 x 16 cabin and went to bed.  Just to fall asleep and never wake up was the most I had hope for. Little did I know that I was now in The Father’s Hand and He was not about to let the devil pluck me out of His Hand.

John 10:28-30 KJV And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.

I awoke to someone knocking on my cabin door. I had the curtains all closed and had no idea who it could be until I opened the door to see my Dad standing there. I guess he smelled the gas and asked, “it’s come to this?” Not knowing what to answer I asked him, “how did you know to find me here” He said something like, “I just knew”  My Dad and I were on good terms but not what you could call close. I could go weeks without speaking to him but was glad to when I did if you understand. I knew inside, somehow God had sent him to stop me from making a final big mistake.

In secular counseling I met a Catholic nun, in conversation I told her why I was there. She said, “you should read Psalm 51, I think it will help you.”  I took her advice and saw the power of God’s Word mixed with my repentance from a “broken and contrite heart” start it’s work of “Sanctification” in me. If you answer the “drawing of the Father” to Jesus and are “Born Again” with His Spirit, it WILL coax you toward sanctification “setting apart” to “draw you nearer” to God.

Then things really started happening that had never happened before.  In the middle of the day I thought, “I need to go to my room and kneel down to pray to God.” In my entire life this had NEVER happened.  I went to a full gospel church for the first time in New Orleans where I knew no one. During the worship service, my left ear felt suddenly warm, so much so that I looked behind me to see what was going on. Not understanding I turned back and started singing with the worship music again and my ear warmed up again, looked back but nothing. Then I turned again and the service and preaching went on without no other “strange events” happening.

At least not until I got in my truck and started listening to a new Dwight Yoakum cassette I had just got with 18 other new country and classic rock ones from joining a cassette club. Suddenly it didn’t sound too good and I looked at a Christian worship cassette my sister had given me. I had tried it a couple times but just wasn’t my kind of music. I took out Dwight and put in the worship music and cried as I listened to it on the hour drive back home, it was beautiful. My ears hungered for anything that worshiped, praised or taught about God.

I was trying to make amends and patch up our marriage but I had hurt my wife so much. She kept telling me she was afraid to trust me again. She wanted to see me and talk together but was afraid to get back together in fear of me hurting her again. I knew God was doing wondrous things in my life and the Christian church where I had gone a couple times was nothing like a Catholic mass.

We had a date on a Saturday night and I pleaded with her to come with me to church the next day but she was a staunch Catholic. I believed that if I could get her to come to church with me there God might “Do Something” to intervene in our marriage. The most she would commit to was call me in the morning. I could tell she didn’t want to.

That night I got on my knees and pleaded with God in prayer like I’d never done before. I prayed and prayed for God to deliver her from her fear of me until I woke up on my knees from what I think was a dream but I’m not sure. All I remember of the dream is that I am looking closely at two feet wearing old looking sandals.

In the morning I called her to see if she changed her mind and would she come to church with me, she said yes. We sat towards the back in the center section. During the worship service Pastor Faron points towards our direction and does the “come see” with his finger sign. I look behind me to see who’s attention he’s trying to get. When I look forward again, Pastor Faron does the “come see” thing again and it looks like he is pointing at me. So knowing it isn’t me look behind me to see who but looking forward again realize, it is me he wants to go up to say something to me.

When I get there he tells me something that I have been telling God, “God please use me.” Pastor Faron says, “God Wants To Use You and prays with me” I go back to our seat and now Pastor Faron is making sign for me and my wife to go up there.

When we get there Pastor Faron tells my wife, “God wants to deliver you from fear.” Now I know for sure who’s feet in sandals I saw in a dream or a vision. We didn’t repair our marriage and about 3 years later I married again.

We went for over 20 years to a full gospel church until the pastor retired then started attending the church were are now about 4 years ago. The hunger for Christian music and to hear God’s Word preached every chance I had began to diminish over those years and I went back to enjoying the old classic rock I had grown up on. Honestly I listened to both at times but was falling away from the love of hearing good preaching tapes and cd’s.

With the internet craze, over the years I allowed myself to dabble with the porn again. I surely wouldn’t let it ruin my life again and since “nobody is perfect,” we all have some “thorn in the flesh sin” like Paul had to deal with to keep him humble, that could be mine, right? I would even sometimes ask God to forgive me of it and I was really “careful” not to look at porn the night before going to church. In my perverted mind I had found a way to justify the sin that had almost took my life and had ruined my children’s life and my previous marriage.

I noticed my times of God doing really amazing things in my life were not so often but honestly He did do some miraculous things throughout it. Not the intimate things, but the general things in life. Like when I was a commercial fisherman with no medical insurance, God made a 30,000 dollar hospital bill evaporate away to 0 (zero). When the lady from the hospital called, she asked me if I was sitting down before she gave me the great news.

Or like when Mersa M. from the IRS called to say, we are having a “One Day Workshop” to improve the image of the IRS when talk of abolishing it was going strong around the mid to late 90’s. She knew we had a 25,000 dollar tax debt because we had went over there and asked her a very stupid question. How much money does my wife’s ex really make to spend this much money, the debt was our answer. We went in that morning, met with Mersa and her supervisor. We left that afternoon with that bill reduced to 0 (zero). And they told me I would also be getting a 100.00 dollar “refund” for the first installment payment I had made, and we did. Because of the IRS absolving that debt, Louisiana had to forgive the 5,000 dollar tax bill they had sent when they thought we owed the 25,000 to IRS.

In the vein of the “go kneel down and pray – out of the blue things” God did in my early walk with Him, He gave me the words to a prayer that I would say often to Him, “God please never take your hand from upon me.” I must have prayed that hundreds of times. In my subconscious I guess I knew that I still had the old nature in me. A favorite saying of mine was “too often we are our own worst enemy.”  I knew for certain we have the capability of destroying ourselves with need of no ones help.

God answered that prayer. Maybe because it is in line with Jesus’ prayer,

John 10:28-30 KJV   And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.

Now I’ll get to the second time God saved me with “A Mighty Hand and A Stretched Out Arm”

God started by making a bible verse come alive to me like none before.

2 Peter 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Then God began to unravel my understanding of Paul’s thorn in the flesh sin being acceptable.  God brought to my attention a parable that Jesus taught about the wicked Pharisees and “Corban”

Mark 7:11-13 NAS    … but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

Wanting to learn more about what Corban was I learned that it was an “offering made to God” in an attempt to “draw closer to God.” As I learned what the different offerings were for I discovered that even the sin offering was to be made for “UNINTENTIONAL” sins. There is NO OFFERING acceptable to God for WILLFUL SIN. This article below goes into great detail,

Corban is related to the Hebrew word “Karev – to be near.” A Corban is an offering through which a person seeks to “draw near to God”

https://www.betemunah.org/korbanot.html

Look at these scriptures, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+21%3A14&version=NKJV    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+15%3A30-31&version=NKJV  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+17%3A12-13&version=NKJV

Run “Ignorance” through Strong’s Concordance concerning sin, learn what it says.

Willful sin has only one remedy, Repentance – the kind David wrote about in Psalm 51, from a “broken and contrite heart,” turning away from it and turning back to God. In the book of Hebrews the writer says that along the same lines of what Peter says about a dog returning to eat it’s vomit,

Hebrews10:29 KJV   Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

God’s Grace made me realize I had to “Repent” of my thorn in the flesh sin and I realized that very well. I believe God allowed an angel to minister the gift of “repentance and hope” to me. There is such an angel mentioned in the Book of Enoch and who’s name is the angel that Jacob wrestled with,

Genesis 32:30-31 KJV  ³⁰ And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.³¹ And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.

https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-recognize-archangel-phanuel-124279

Enoch mentions 4 arch angels: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Phanuel.

40.9 And he said to me: ʺThis first one, is the Holy Michael, the merciful and long‑suffering. And the second, who is in charge of all the diseases, and in charge of all the wounds of the sons of men, is Raphael. And the third, who is in charge of all the powers, is the Holy Gabriel. And the fourth, who is in charge of repentance, and hope of those who will inherit eternal life, is Phanuel.

Proverb – Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! After being tricked once, one should learn from one’s mistakes and avoid being tricked in the same way again.

I thought “I’m gonna stop doing that” except I found myself still doing that. I would pray, Lord please help me to stop having the desire to look at porn. When I knew an opportunity to look at porn would be there I’d say to myself “You are not doing that again” only to do it again, and again. Each time I knew I would soon really feel like a dog that just finished eating it’s vomit. I would even say to myself, “Go ahead and eat that vomit you filthy dog” and do it anyway feeling filthy.

My prayers changed, now I begged and begged God to take the desire for porn away from me, but no change. Then I started begging God for a new heart, maybe that would work, but no change. Then I got what I can only describe as rude with my prayers to God. I would tell Him, “Lord I know you made me, you made everything in the world. There is nothing that you cannot make. Why won’t you make me a new heart, I know you can,why, why won’t you make me a new heart.”

I knew I was somewhere between being oppressed and possessed  by a demonic spirit of lust and had no control to resist it. I knew if I died in this condition I was going to hell, I knew it without a doubt. Day after day I begged and pleaded with God to give me a new heart and deliver me from myself and hell. “I know you can make me a new heart, why won’t you make me a new heart, please make me a new heart.” After months of prayers, finally one day God gave me a new heart and I was able to have victory over the desire to watch porn. I had to fight some battles because I had to learn about guarding what I looked at, listened to and allowed my mind to think about.

I have a newly understood compassion for those bound by addiction which often has spiritual roots. There is an unseen but real world at war for and against the souls of mankind. If you ever hear or see me write, “Jesus Set Me Free” it’s not a cliché. It’s true, Jesus Set Me Free from a bondage I felt powerless to get victory over. Jesus is still in the “Setting People Free” business.

One day Bishop Drew was preaching about when Jesus told them to open the tomb so He could call Lazarus out. Martha said, Lord he will be stinking. I thought, “That was me.”  I was stinking when God saved me the second time. God reached down in the stinking maggot eaten state I was in and brought me out with a “Mighty Hand and A Stretched Out Arm”

Today I guard my new heart and cherish it very dearly. In God’s Mercy and Grace He Saved me Again with a Mighty Hand and A Stretched Out Arm. In my mind I believe this is the last heart God will give me. I am very careful what I look at, listen to and what thoughts I allow to nest in my mind. I rebuke any thought that is unclean as soon as they come. I have learned the hard way, the very hard way to give NO Place to the enemy. A foothold is a beach head to build a “Stronghold” on in the enemy’s mind.

Ephesians 4:27-30 KJV  ²⁷ Neither give place to the devil.  ²⁸ Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.  ²⁹ Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. ³⁰ And GRIEVE NOT the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are Sealed Unto the Day of Redemption.

People talk about the Grace of God and what it is and isn’t.  A common definition is, “God’s unmerited favor.”   After all this, one day looking in the mirror I knew I was facing my worst enemy and felt so unworthy of the Lovingkindness & Grace God had poured out on my sinful life again and all I could do was put my head down in shame and cry. It was another,” time to get on your knees and pray moment” so I did. As I felt God’s love so powerfully and yet felt so undeserving of it, I said “God how can you love me?” Instantly I heard in my mind, “Read Hosea.” God has a love that is nothing like we can understand even when you are on the receiving end of it.

As I read Hosea, I knew what character I mimicked. When I read Joshua and the story of Rahab the harlot, I know what part was mine. Praise Jesus who’s Hebrew name is Yeshua, and who’s meaning is closely related to Hosea (deliverer) and Joshua (Jehovah-saved) is also a Forgiver of Sins. This video tells how it feels to live in the world with a label like them until the Blood of Jesus purges the conscience as Hebrews 9:13-15 says.

I wrote all this to give all the Glory, Honor and Praise to my loving Heavenly Father and my Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Lord, I am not my own any more. I have been bought and paid for with the precious Blood of Jesus Christ. I cling to Him for dear life.  I wrote this with the hope that God will send someone here who needs to hear this before it’s too late for them and the enemy wins another soul to hell.

Once saved, always saved is a lie and a hoax from hell. As the article in the beginning of this post says, we are saved, being saved and will be saved if we continue in the faith. If that’s not so why did Paul write,

1 Timothy 6:12-14 KJV  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Philippians 2:12 KJV  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Matthew 24:13 KJV  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

If you are in the Father’s Hand, He has birth His Spirit in you. That Spirit, Inner Witness, Mind of Christ, whatever you call it WILL NOT let you “rebel or defect” to the enemy’s side without letting you know your error is sin. It’s the Conviction of the Holy Spirit.

If you said a “sinners prayer” at some time in your life and you have never had a “change of heart” in your desires to seek and desire God, pray it again. How can the Spirit of God be in you without having some effect in your character? Think About it

Luke 15:7, 10 KJV  7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

There is a day coming when God’s angels will have a different role to play, even the angel of Repentance and Hope, Phanuel.

 Here the 4 angels are mentioned as administering punishment to the wicked on the day of judgment. From the Book of Enoch,

54.6 And Michael and Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel – these will take hold of them on that great day. And throw them, on that day, into the furnace of burning fire, so that the Lord of Spirits may take vengeance on them for their iniquity, in that they became servants of Satan, and led astray those who dwell upon the dry ground.

4 Angels Around the Throne, Who Come and Go

71.8 And I saw Angels, who could not be counted, a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, surrounding that house. And Michael, and Raphael, and Gabriel, and Phanuel, and the Holy Angels who are in the Heavens above, went in and out of that house.

71.13 And that Head of Days came with Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel, and thousands and tens of thousands of Angels without number.

Maybe some will say what gives you the right to judge something to be sin for others. Why would I confess such shameful things of myself to the world except out of Love and concern to help those that want help. JESUS is the answer, and I did what Jesus said to do first,

Matthew 7:3-5 NKJV   And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Jesus Did Set Me Free from that Bondage and is continually showing me things in me that need adjusting to conform to His Image. I am far from perfect in any way but I try to live a life pleasing to God. It’s the least I can do after ALL He’s done for me. If He never answers a single other prayer I will serve Him. He Is My LORD. I am NOT my own. Praise JESUS for His Blood that bought me and set me free from the curse of sin and death.

We are worshipping Satan with our body if we willingly, desire and premeditate to do the wicked things his voice and that of his minions whisper into our mind. The polar opposite of us being conformed to the image of God’s character and example Jesus lived on earth, is conforming to the character and living the example the enemy sets for us.

Jesus warned as well as the apostles and prophets of guard against deception “IN the Church.” Be A Berean and confirm what your pastor or priest is telling you lines up COMPLETELY with the Word of God. God is holding us all to be knowledgeable of His Word. Our generation has access to a multitude of online tools to learn and understand the Word of God that NO previous generations had. “To whom much is given, much will be required.”

P.S. Tonight, Wednesday service, Bishop Drew preached on “Jesus Strong Tower” relating to Proverbs 18:10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower: The righteous run to it and are safe.

On the back of the card he had printed with his scripture text for tonight, one verse was printed twice, on the top and bottom of the card. First time I seen this done but Bishop Drew is very big on encouraging us to move past the mistakes we make in life. Learn from them but don’t allow the enemy to keep putting them in your face and make you feel guilty or unforgiven. It was this,

Proverbs 24:16a For a righteous man may fall seven times, And rise again …

Salvation Is Found In No Other Name But JESUS

Acts 4:10-12 NKJV     let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. ¹¹ This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ ¹² Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Jesus Is The Aleph & The Tav, The Alpha & The Omega, The First & The Last

א ת  Jesus Α Ω  א ת Jesus Α Ω  א ת Jesus Α Ω  א ת Jesus Α Ω  א ת Jesus Α Ω  א ת Jesus Α Ω