By Odon Bulamba (Friday 20th May 2005)
THE FIFTH SEAL: THE SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR
Revelation 6: 9-11
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given;
they cried out with a loud voice, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?
They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.
During the fifth seal, something strange happened, because it’s almost impossible to explain how John could see the altar in heaven. It wasn’t at its normal place in the temple and John knew that very well. According to the Jewish, there were three types of altars and in this passage the Bible doesn’t specify which one it is.
1. The first altar in the temple was to burn offerings or sacrifices so that God could be glorified. In Exodus 27:1, it was not big enough for all the souls to go under. Many pastors today interpret this verse as souls being sacrificed and crying to God for help. We know that sacrifices would go on the altar to be consumed but here the souls were not on but under it. So, did God accept sacrifices under the altar too? These people have already finished their journey and they are not sacrificed again. They’ve done what they were supposed to do and their role is finished so they went under the altar knowing it’s the only place they can hide and be completely safe from sin. They know every time they sin, the altar has the role of receiving a sacrifice of forgiveness and they know every time blood is on the altar, God will forgive their sin so they can be sinless. When we reach chapter 20, we’ll talk more in depth about the altar, on it, under it and its four sides.
2. The altar of incense, Exodus 30. It’s different from the first one: smaller, with a different shape and made of different materials.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO ALTARS
At that time people knew the difference between the two altars and their purposes. But today, the church is really mixed up between politics, normal life and religion. Sometimes it’s hard for us to separate our normal life and God’s will, it has made us Christians neither hot nor cold.
Romans 12:1 tells us it’s better to offer our body, soul and heart to God so that God can continue to protect us. If we offer only our soul to God and keep aside our heart and body, Satan will continue to fight us.
It will be like someone who offers incense to God so that God can smell the good smell and forget to offer his body as a sacrifice to become sinless.
People wonder how they can offer their body, or their heart or their soul to God. If I do so, what shall I remain with or what shall I keep for myself? The best thing to do is to remember your life (body, soul, heart) doesn’t belong to you but to someone else: be careful to use it wisely.
It’s easy to tell someone you love; I give you my life, my heart, but what about this answer: “If you give me your heart, let me keep it and you go without it’? “If you give me your life, I’ll block your nose or mouth because they belong to me and don’t move anymore.” Not easy, even if you agree, after 2 seconds, your body will push you to breathe again. So, you can’t give your body or your life to someone else.
That’s why in the Garden, when Adam made that mistake; God asked him where he was. He wasn’t under the altar, he was in the Garden and this is where he hid. He did so because he knew he had sinned but God told him although he had sinned, this life didn’t belong to him and he needed to wake up and repent. Instead of repenting he justified himself: “The wife you gave me pushed me to eat the fruit”. I don’t think Eve was strong enough to push Adam to put the fruit in his mouth. It was Adam’s will to eat the fruit.
Similarly, remember our body can refuse to be destroyed, to be pushed to sin. We must stop that sin. We can refuse to do Satan’s will. If not, we will be seriously persecuted. We usually pray for people who are persecuted under the sun but there is another type of persecution. The church of God in some countries goes through the physical persecution but here in the seal, they go through the spiritual persecution and they cry to God day after day. When these Christians pray, they bring a big basket of problems: “God, I really want to be strong in prayer but I’m weak every time, I want to fast but I can’t … I want to do this and that but I’m unable to. Lord, till when? When will this finish?”
God looks at you and asks you to wait a little bit, He tells you when the time is right He’ll intervene. The Bible is talking here about our internal life and we are the first person to persecute it. How? Satan brings a temptation, he just suggests and it’s up to you and me to decide as responsible people. Satan gives me an idea and it’s up to me to act on it. Satan can never take your hand and make you sin, unless someone is pushed by evil spirits, when evil spirits lead someone and he/she doesn’t know what they’re doing, otherwise, God gives us the privilege to decide.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Revelations Seven (summary)
By Odon Bulamba (13 May 05 - summary only)
Revelation 7:1-2
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage the earth or the sea,
The four angels at the four corners will stop the wind. Today if someone doesn’t breathe properly, they will go to hospital but on that day medicine and the power of science will be useless.
(vs2) God spoke loudly to the four angels, ‘don’t destroy the earth’, because of grace we are alive. God could finish the world since a long time ago but grace stops Him because Jesus tells the Father, ‘please not yet, give this person a chance’.
East; the sun always rises from the east and gives the beginning of a new day. Jesus is the morning star or sun. Today the church has forgotten the requirements God has for us, we don’t know the meaning of love and although we see a new day coming and the only thing God requires of us is love, we are unable to do it. The angel will release the seal because God’s people don’t obey Him.
(vs4) 144,000 people from the tribes of Israel. Genesis 29:32, Leah gave birth to Rueben, ‘behold a son’ and she believed her husband will love her now. By bringing birth to new souls the love of God for us increases. Gen 49:3, the blessing of Reuben who is powerful and dignified and yet his birthright is removed because of what he did. This is the first picture of the church, many Christians who bring new birth think God will love them more and they will be attached to God but there is a matter of education and follow up, how to help them and how to show them the right way, Luke 11:46. Mathew 23:15, after salvation we teach wrong things that are worse than before. Reuben lost his birthright but we must keep our position in God.
The second born was Simeon, ‘answered/heard’. Many people today know the world can’t hear us and our friends and families don’t care what we say and we hope God will answer. The blessing of Simeon in Gen 49:5 was a curse and whenever we also use our flesh instead of the glory of God and violate His rules (violence) God will curse us also.
Levi, was with his brother and they worked together and many people today who are violent in churches try to influence others, e.g. ‘Pete, look at the pastor, let’s take action against him’. Levi means ‘attached’ and he was linked with Simeon and both were cursed. Sometimes we think we are being attached to God through our prayers but we are just attacking people or judging or destroying people (the same way Levi destroyed people with Simeon).
Judah, ‘praised’ was the fourth born and was weaker but through him God will do something great because of the glory he gave to God. The lion in the Bible represents victory and power and when you praise God He will manifest His power in you.
Dan, means ‘vindicated’ and all of us want justice form God and support but not when we are doing wrong, only when we are right. When our enemies attack us we need justice but when we are attacking others, we don’t need God’s justice. Dan will bring justice and be like a serpent biting the heel of a horse so the rider will fall backwards. In Rev 6 there are men riding horses and if we have justice in our lives we will bite those horses to make satan fall down. With justice and faith in your life, God will be on your side.
Napthali, means ‘fighting’ and who do you fight against? Your husband, children, co-workers? We have a big spiritual battle (Ephesians) and if you have ‘justice’ you will know how to ‘fight’ anger and you will not fight against others. We must have a good focus to know who to fight against; our weaknesses, bad habits etc.
Joseph, represents Jesus Christ in that he was removed from the 12 tribes and replaced by his two sons and Jesus was also removed from earth so the blessing could continue in us.
Revelation 7:1-2
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage the earth or the sea,
The four angels at the four corners will stop the wind. Today if someone doesn’t breathe properly, they will go to hospital but on that day medicine and the power of science will be useless.
(vs2) God spoke loudly to the four angels, ‘don’t destroy the earth’, because of grace we are alive. God could finish the world since a long time ago but grace stops Him because Jesus tells the Father, ‘please not yet, give this person a chance’.
East; the sun always rises from the east and gives the beginning of a new day. Jesus is the morning star or sun. Today the church has forgotten the requirements God has for us, we don’t know the meaning of love and although we see a new day coming and the only thing God requires of us is love, we are unable to do it. The angel will release the seal because God’s people don’t obey Him.
(vs4) 144,000 people from the tribes of Israel. Genesis 29:32, Leah gave birth to Rueben, ‘behold a son’ and she believed her husband will love her now. By bringing birth to new souls the love of God for us increases. Gen 49:3, the blessing of Reuben who is powerful and dignified and yet his birthright is removed because of what he did. This is the first picture of the church, many Christians who bring new birth think God will love them more and they will be attached to God but there is a matter of education and follow up, how to help them and how to show them the right way, Luke 11:46. Mathew 23:15, after salvation we teach wrong things that are worse than before. Reuben lost his birthright but we must keep our position in God.
The second born was Simeon, ‘answered/heard’. Many people today know the world can’t hear us and our friends and families don’t care what we say and we hope God will answer. The blessing of Simeon in Gen 49:5 was a curse and whenever we also use our flesh instead of the glory of God and violate His rules (violence) God will curse us also.
Levi, was with his brother and they worked together and many people today who are violent in churches try to influence others, e.g. ‘Pete, look at the pastor, let’s take action against him’. Levi means ‘attached’ and he was linked with Simeon and both were cursed. Sometimes we think we are being attached to God through our prayers but we are just attacking people or judging or destroying people (the same way Levi destroyed people with Simeon).
Judah, ‘praised’ was the fourth born and was weaker but through him God will do something great because of the glory he gave to God. The lion in the Bible represents victory and power and when you praise God He will manifest His power in you.
Dan, means ‘vindicated’ and all of us want justice form God and support but not when we are doing wrong, only when we are right. When our enemies attack us we need justice but when we are attacking others, we don’t need God’s justice. Dan will bring justice and be like a serpent biting the heel of a horse so the rider will fall backwards. In Rev 6 there are men riding horses and if we have justice in our lives we will bite those horses to make satan fall down. With justice and faith in your life, God will be on your side.
Napthali, means ‘fighting’ and who do you fight against? Your husband, children, co-workers? We have a big spiritual battle (Ephesians) and if you have ‘justice’ you will know how to ‘fight’ anger and you will not fight against others. We must have a good focus to know who to fight against; our weaknesses, bad habits etc.
Joseph, represents Jesus Christ in that he was removed from the 12 tribes and replaced by his two sons and Jesus was also removed from earth so the blessing could continue in us.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Revelations 7 (Part II)
By Odon Bulamba (Friday 13th May 2005)
VERSE 4
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel:
This is the number of people that were sealed.
The 12 tribes of Israel are all Jacob’s descendants.
His brother also had 12 tribes but here we’re only talking about Jacob’s descendants.
REUBEN
First born of the 12, first son of Jacob. Reuben means “See, a son”, Genesis 29:22 & 32. His mother, Leah, was crossing a hard situation but by giving birth to Reuben, she believed her husband would love her, she believed she’d be loved more by producing a new life to her husband. Similarly, we (the church) believe God’s love to us will increase when we bring more souls to God, when we give birth to newborn.
What blessing did Reuben get from Jacob? Genesis 49: 3
Although Reuben was the first-born, powerful and full of dignity, his birthright was taken away from him because of what he did because he slept in his father’s bed.
What can the church learn from that man?
Let’s take the picture of God and the church: God is the father and the church is the mother. The church will say something and God will take another decision similar to what happened to Reuben.
What does that mean to you?
- We must make disciples
- As Christians, let’s be humble, because He can take the first and make it the last.
- People can be saved but we must help them grow otherwise they might follow a wrong way.
Reuben is the first picture of the church. Many Christians today think when they bring new souls to God, God’s love will increase for them, and our misery will disappear. But on the other hand, are we ready to follow them up, to help them and show them the right way? Matthew speaks about those who are good to teach the gospel, make converts but then they act in a way so that these souls will go back to hell.
Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”
So when they’ve won people to God, they start teaching them wrong things to make them worse. Today, God tells us this type of people is in the church.
How do we mislead people? At first, we tell them about God and the love of God but after a short time, we start teaching them things that are not correct, we mislead them.
Only twelve thousand people will be selected or saved, from that tribe.
Remember that although Reuben was the first-born his behaviour made him lose his birthright. Same for us: be careful, our behaviour must reflect the glory of God so that we can keep our position towards God and among human beings.
SIMEON
It means, “he hears”. Many people today think the world, our wives, our husbands, our friends, our families put us down and we hope God will do something about it. We hope we’ll see a Simeon.
Simeon’s blessing is in Genesis 49:5.
Think about his blessing, would you bless your own son or daughter like that? Never. It’s a curse and not a blessing. Can God allow his children to be cursed? If yes, when can a Christian be cursed by God? Whenever we use our flesh instead of the glory of God, it’s a violation of His rules, we go against His will and God puts us aside. We then bear a curse.
Simeon didn’t work alone but with his brother Levi. Many people today use violence in churches and try to influence others to work with them. They use their strength; they act, not for God’s glory but to stop the work of God in people’s daily lives.
For example, many Christians in America didn’t vote for Bush and as a consequence they were excommunicated. This is an act of violence. This is done to destroy the church. These people are like Simeon, they were supposed to glorify God and instead they take the opportunity to mix politics with religion, mix their job or policies with the Word of God.
Simeon invited Levi to work with him, to act and to destroy. They forgot the curse of God is above them.
I saw on the NZ TV the other day a pastor who was boasting about his wealth. This has come to the point that his followers in his church are not called Christians anymore but a new name made of his name, Tamaki. He actually mixes his Christian life with money or something else, like success, pride …
This is a problem for our Lord. Whenever we are called let’s try to balance things and carry on the right road.
From that tribe, from the people acting that way, God will only choose 12 000 people.
LEVI
It means attached, joined. Son of Jacob by Leah, Genesis 29:34.
What blessing did he have? (Genesis 49:5-7)
It was linked to Simeon. They are cursed together. Something we think that will attach us to God deceives us. I might think I’ll be attached to God through my prayer but through my prayer I curse people because when I pray I talk negatively about others, or I ask God to punish others. I am just destroying the church, the environment and everybody. Where I am going? How many times does my prayer glorify God’s name?
JUDAH
It means praise. He was the fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah, Genesis 29:35.
What blessing for Judah? (Genesis 49:8-12)
He was weaker than his brothers. God said through him He’ll do something. If you give glory to God and try to manifest it, God will raise you up and make you like a young lion. In the Bible, a lion is a sign of victory, of power. That’s why God manifests Himself through glory. When you adore Him and glorify Him He will easily show His power. There are many examples in the Bible. When some sing, they close their eyes, glorify God and feel the power of God in them. They might start shouting, or talking to magnify God. The others around wish they would keep quiet, are annoyed and cast out what makes their brothers sing and speak so loudly in the name of Jesus. They take authority against the glory of God. When some sing, others just look around and observe those who dance or jump and minimise the glory of God.
But Christians must bring the glory of God always higher so that we can receive God’s power and He can continue to care for us.
DAN
It means give justice, he has vindicated. All of us, we want justice from God, we want God to do justice for us, we want God to support us. We don’t want God to apply justice on us when we are wrong though, but only when we are right. When we are attacked we want justice but when we attack others, do we still call out on God’s justice or keep quiet?
What blessing is for Dan? (Genesis 49:16-18)
Dan will bring justice. In Revelation 6 we saw four men coming on horses. So if we practice justice, we’ll cause Satan’s instrument to fall. The instruments Satan uses against us are related to horses. If we have justice in our heart, within our lives, we’ll bite these horses they’ll get poisoned and our purpose is not to kill the horse but to make Satan fall off.
So whenever I want to practice justice in my life, justice in my faith, God will be on my side. Although Satan attacks me with all his strength, with all his army, it’s not easy for a donkey or a horse to kill a serpent. A donkey can kick a human being but never a serpent. When we practice justice, Satan looks at us and acknowledges his chance of losing. This is why the Bible encourages us to resist him every time he comes and he will run away. Whenever we practice justice he has to surrender. So the church needs justice, you and I need justice so that we can be winners over sin and winners over temptation and over this world. If we don’t have justice, Satan won’t fear us, he will keep tempting us. When you have justice you can’t steal and Satan has to surrender.
NAPHTALI
It means fighting, wrestling. Who do you fight against? Some fight against their boss at work, their colleagues, others against their wife, husband, friends but the Bible talks about a big fight that is not fought with our flesh. It’s a spiritual flight, no blood in it (Ephesians 6:12) it’s against Satan. After fighting against Satan we will be equipped to sort out problems. It’s not easy to get angry or be resentful for years against your sister if you know justice and you how to fight that temptation of anger. If you know anger is a sin, as soon as you see it coming you decide not to sin, ask for forgiveness and just carry on with your daily life. It’s easier to fight against a human being than against temptation or Satan. So Naphtali means he fought against his sister.
First, define who you must fight against. Shall I fight my bad character, my behaviour, my weaknesses, yes I do? Do I fight other people’s weaknesses? No, I don’t, Jesus asked to look at ourselves first. Just support your brothers and sisters, advice them but it’s not up to you to fight against them. Don’t decide to stop a relationship with someone because you are pure and they are sinners.
CONCLUSION
So for each one of these tribes, there were only 12 000 people chosen and this was by God’s mercy. Some people say these 144,000 people represent the church today. It might be true. The new Israel is also our church, it’s us. The people of Israel will be there, Moses and Elijah (Revelation 18) are coming soon. They will preach again and at that time, they will announce Jesus and ask people to turn to Him. After a short time, they will be killed and only 144,000 people will admit and accept Jesus as their Lord. These people will be saved.
VERSE 4
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel:
This is the number of people that were sealed.
The 12 tribes of Israel are all Jacob’s descendants.
His brother also had 12 tribes but here we’re only talking about Jacob’s descendants.
REUBEN
First born of the 12, first son of Jacob. Reuben means “See, a son”, Genesis 29:22 & 32. His mother, Leah, was crossing a hard situation but by giving birth to Reuben, she believed her husband would love her, she believed she’d be loved more by producing a new life to her husband. Similarly, we (the church) believe God’s love to us will increase when we bring more souls to God, when we give birth to newborn.
What blessing did Reuben get from Jacob? Genesis 49: 3
Although Reuben was the first-born, powerful and full of dignity, his birthright was taken away from him because of what he did because he slept in his father’s bed.
What can the church learn from that man?
Let’s take the picture of God and the church: God is the father and the church is the mother. The church will say something and God will take another decision similar to what happened to Reuben.
What does that mean to you?
- We must make disciples
- As Christians, let’s be humble, because He can take the first and make it the last.
- People can be saved but we must help them grow otherwise they might follow a wrong way.
Reuben is the first picture of the church. Many Christians today think when they bring new souls to God, God’s love will increase for them, and our misery will disappear. But on the other hand, are we ready to follow them up, to help them and show them the right way? Matthew speaks about those who are good to teach the gospel, make converts but then they act in a way so that these souls will go back to hell.
Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”
So when they’ve won people to God, they start teaching them wrong things to make them worse. Today, God tells us this type of people is in the church.
How do we mislead people? At first, we tell them about God and the love of God but after a short time, we start teaching them things that are not correct, we mislead them.
Only twelve thousand people will be selected or saved, from that tribe.
Remember that although Reuben was the first-born his behaviour made him lose his birthright. Same for us: be careful, our behaviour must reflect the glory of God so that we can keep our position towards God and among human beings.
SIMEON
It means, “he hears”. Many people today think the world, our wives, our husbands, our friends, our families put us down and we hope God will do something about it. We hope we’ll see a Simeon.
Simeon’s blessing is in Genesis 49:5.
Think about his blessing, would you bless your own son or daughter like that? Never. It’s a curse and not a blessing. Can God allow his children to be cursed? If yes, when can a Christian be cursed by God? Whenever we use our flesh instead of the glory of God, it’s a violation of His rules, we go against His will and God puts us aside. We then bear a curse.
Simeon didn’t work alone but with his brother Levi. Many people today use violence in churches and try to influence others to work with them. They use their strength; they act, not for God’s glory but to stop the work of God in people’s daily lives.
For example, many Christians in America didn’t vote for Bush and as a consequence they were excommunicated. This is an act of violence. This is done to destroy the church. These people are like Simeon, they were supposed to glorify God and instead they take the opportunity to mix politics with religion, mix their job or policies with the Word of God.
Simeon invited Levi to work with him, to act and to destroy. They forgot the curse of God is above them.
I saw on the NZ TV the other day a pastor who was boasting about his wealth. This has come to the point that his followers in his church are not called Christians anymore but a new name made of his name, Tamaki. He actually mixes his Christian life with money or something else, like success, pride …
This is a problem for our Lord. Whenever we are called let’s try to balance things and carry on the right road.
From that tribe, from the people acting that way, God will only choose 12 000 people.
LEVI
It means attached, joined. Son of Jacob by Leah, Genesis 29:34.
What blessing did he have? (Genesis 49:5-7)
It was linked to Simeon. They are cursed together. Something we think that will attach us to God deceives us. I might think I’ll be attached to God through my prayer but through my prayer I curse people because when I pray I talk negatively about others, or I ask God to punish others. I am just destroying the church, the environment and everybody. Where I am going? How many times does my prayer glorify God’s name?
JUDAH
It means praise. He was the fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah, Genesis 29:35.
What blessing for Judah? (Genesis 49:8-12)
He was weaker than his brothers. God said through him He’ll do something. If you give glory to God and try to manifest it, God will raise you up and make you like a young lion. In the Bible, a lion is a sign of victory, of power. That’s why God manifests Himself through glory. When you adore Him and glorify Him He will easily show His power. There are many examples in the Bible. When some sing, they close their eyes, glorify God and feel the power of God in them. They might start shouting, or talking to magnify God. The others around wish they would keep quiet, are annoyed and cast out what makes their brothers sing and speak so loudly in the name of Jesus. They take authority against the glory of God. When some sing, others just look around and observe those who dance or jump and minimise the glory of God.
But Christians must bring the glory of God always higher so that we can receive God’s power and He can continue to care for us.
DAN
It means give justice, he has vindicated. All of us, we want justice from God, we want God to do justice for us, we want God to support us. We don’t want God to apply justice on us when we are wrong though, but only when we are right. When we are attacked we want justice but when we attack others, do we still call out on God’s justice or keep quiet?
What blessing is for Dan? (Genesis 49:16-18)
Dan will bring justice. In Revelation 6 we saw four men coming on horses. So if we practice justice, we’ll cause Satan’s instrument to fall. The instruments Satan uses against us are related to horses. If we have justice in our heart, within our lives, we’ll bite these horses they’ll get poisoned and our purpose is not to kill the horse but to make Satan fall off.
So whenever I want to practice justice in my life, justice in my faith, God will be on my side. Although Satan attacks me with all his strength, with all his army, it’s not easy for a donkey or a horse to kill a serpent. A donkey can kick a human being but never a serpent. When we practice justice, Satan looks at us and acknowledges his chance of losing. This is why the Bible encourages us to resist him every time he comes and he will run away. Whenever we practice justice he has to surrender. So the church needs justice, you and I need justice so that we can be winners over sin and winners over temptation and over this world. If we don’t have justice, Satan won’t fear us, he will keep tempting us. When you have justice you can’t steal and Satan has to surrender.
NAPHTALI
It means fighting, wrestling. Who do you fight against? Some fight against their boss at work, their colleagues, others against their wife, husband, friends but the Bible talks about a big fight that is not fought with our flesh. It’s a spiritual flight, no blood in it (Ephesians 6:12) it’s against Satan. After fighting against Satan we will be equipped to sort out problems. It’s not easy to get angry or be resentful for years against your sister if you know justice and you how to fight that temptation of anger. If you know anger is a sin, as soon as you see it coming you decide not to sin, ask for forgiveness and just carry on with your daily life. It’s easier to fight against a human being than against temptation or Satan. So Naphtali means he fought against his sister.
First, define who you must fight against. Shall I fight my bad character, my behaviour, my weaknesses, yes I do? Do I fight other people’s weaknesses? No, I don’t, Jesus asked to look at ourselves first. Just support your brothers and sisters, advice them but it’s not up to you to fight against them. Don’t decide to stop a relationship with someone because you are pure and they are sinners.
CONCLUSION
So for each one of these tribes, there were only 12 000 people chosen and this was by God’s mercy. Some people say these 144,000 people represent the church today. It might be true. The new Israel is also our church, it’s us. The people of Israel will be there, Moses and Elijah (Revelation 18) are coming soon. They will preach again and at that time, they will announce Jesus and ask people to turn to Him. After a short time, they will be killed and only 144,000 people will admit and accept Jesus as their Lord. These people will be saved.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Revelations 7 (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (13th May 2005)
Revelation 7:1-2
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage the earth or the sea,
VERSE 1
John was in the heaven and he saw something different from what he had seen in Chapter 6. He saw four angels standing up at the four corners of the world and these angels were trying to stop the air blowing over the world, the sea and the trees. Let’s imagine if there was no oxygen for 4 or 10 minutes. How many people will survive? This was a bad vision, four angels stopping the wind and consequently everybody dying. John was shocked.
Many times in the church, God brings signs and threatens us to act if we don’t obey Him. If we continue to sin, we’ll perish. Remember that no matter how long we’ve lived for, we might never be given the opportunity to repent. People who know God and look at the eternal life, must stop and say: “If you stop the oxygen for the church today, we will all perish.”
And here, John saw it happening not only in one part of the world but on the four corners. They were ready to block, to stop the whole world. On that day, many things will be useless, the power of science will become powerless, and everything around us will not be able to produce oxygen.
VERSE 2
When John saw that, another angel in verse 2 came from the East and he had a seal from God. So let’s put that together; first God decides to stop the world, in other words “death penalty for the world” and then someone with the seal of God comes from the East. This is a sign for the world.
That angel spoke loudly to the other angels saying: “Don’t kill, don’t destroy”. Because of grace, because of the message you’re receiving today and because of Jesus our Lord, we’re alive today. God should have finished with the world long ago. Jesus told His Father: “Please, wait, give them a chance to get ready. Someone might come back to me and accept to change their lives.”
Remember the sun comes from the East every morning. We know a new day begins when we look towards the East. If one day the sun came from another corner of the world, people will be terrified. East is the beginning of life and this is where that person comes from.
Jesus has many names referring to the morning: Morning Star … Thanks to Him, people are given another chance to get ready. Unfortunately, instead of getting ready for the coming of Jesus-Christ, the church today is getting discouraged and shows the world they don’t belong to Him. People are tired and get weaker every day.
VERSE 3
Saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants our God with a seal on their foreheads.”
If the world still exists today it’s thanks to God’s mercy. We pray and God looks at His people and thinks it’s better to wait for more people to be saved.
In Genesis 18, Abraham recognised God although He was in the flesh and had a body just like ours. Abraham discerned God under these human bodies and insisted for them to come in. He first asked his wife to prepare some food and then asked his servants to prepare a calf so that the visitors could stay. Abraham changed God’s programme; these men had first come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah but Abraham stopped God (the men) on their way. Abraham wanted the visitors to stay and sleep in his house and by doing that, Abraham was told God wanted to destroy these two cities because of their sins.
Abraham remembered he had some members of his family there and he felt the need to forgive problems that were in the past (with the servants and the land). He started begging God not to destroy the cities. Abraham looked at the human beings in these cities and pleaded God not to destroy them. God accepted to save the cities for only 5 righteous people. Unfortunately, there were less than 5 of them and Lot was told to leave. The angels of God had to push him to hurry up and leave. He left just with his daughters and his wives, nothing else. They left Sodom by force as morning was rising, a new day was starting. That morning God showed the East part of His glory through Abraham’s descendance. Lot left and Abraham believed in God, the God Almighty and knew God really loved him. Five righteous people couldn’t be found but Abraham’s family was spared.
And today, the church is crossing a serious situation; we sometimes forget we don’t meet God’s requirements in our lives. When Jesus was on earth, people reminded Him about God’s Ten Commandments. But Jesus answered; “If you can’t even practise 2 or 3 of them, how will you practise all of them?” This is why He gave us only one: love God with all your heart and love each other, love only and forget the rest. Up to now we don’t really know the meaning of love. Although we see a new day coming and we know grace is still here, and God’s only requirement is love, but we are still unable to do it. It’s a new revolution in the church. Today, if you want to see how people hate each other, go to churches: hatred, jealousy and everything that doesn’t glorify God is in the church. This man has a seal that will release everything because we keep refusing to obey Him and that will be the end of everything.
Revelation 7:1-2
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage the earth or the sea,
VERSE 1
John was in the heaven and he saw something different from what he had seen in Chapter 6. He saw four angels standing up at the four corners of the world and these angels were trying to stop the air blowing over the world, the sea and the trees. Let’s imagine if there was no oxygen for 4 or 10 minutes. How many people will survive? This was a bad vision, four angels stopping the wind and consequently everybody dying. John was shocked.
Many times in the church, God brings signs and threatens us to act if we don’t obey Him. If we continue to sin, we’ll perish. Remember that no matter how long we’ve lived for, we might never be given the opportunity to repent. People who know God and look at the eternal life, must stop and say: “If you stop the oxygen for the church today, we will all perish.”
And here, John saw it happening not only in one part of the world but on the four corners. They were ready to block, to stop the whole world. On that day, many things will be useless, the power of science will become powerless, and everything around us will not be able to produce oxygen.
VERSE 2
When John saw that, another angel in verse 2 came from the East and he had a seal from God. So let’s put that together; first God decides to stop the world, in other words “death penalty for the world” and then someone with the seal of God comes from the East. This is a sign for the world.
That angel spoke loudly to the other angels saying: “Don’t kill, don’t destroy”. Because of grace, because of the message you’re receiving today and because of Jesus our Lord, we’re alive today. God should have finished with the world long ago. Jesus told His Father: “Please, wait, give them a chance to get ready. Someone might come back to me and accept to change their lives.”
Remember the sun comes from the East every morning. We know a new day begins when we look towards the East. If one day the sun came from another corner of the world, people will be terrified. East is the beginning of life and this is where that person comes from.
Jesus has many names referring to the morning: Morning Star … Thanks to Him, people are given another chance to get ready. Unfortunately, instead of getting ready for the coming of Jesus-Christ, the church today is getting discouraged and shows the world they don’t belong to Him. People are tired and get weaker every day.
VERSE 3
Saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants our God with a seal on their foreheads.”
If the world still exists today it’s thanks to God’s mercy. We pray and God looks at His people and thinks it’s better to wait for more people to be saved.
In Genesis 18, Abraham recognised God although He was in the flesh and had a body just like ours. Abraham discerned God under these human bodies and insisted for them to come in. He first asked his wife to prepare some food and then asked his servants to prepare a calf so that the visitors could stay. Abraham changed God’s programme; these men had first come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah but Abraham stopped God (the men) on their way. Abraham wanted the visitors to stay and sleep in his house and by doing that, Abraham was told God wanted to destroy these two cities because of their sins.
Abraham remembered he had some members of his family there and he felt the need to forgive problems that were in the past (with the servants and the land). He started begging God not to destroy the cities. Abraham looked at the human beings in these cities and pleaded God not to destroy them. God accepted to save the cities for only 5 righteous people. Unfortunately, there were less than 5 of them and Lot was told to leave. The angels of God had to push him to hurry up and leave. He left just with his daughters and his wives, nothing else. They left Sodom by force as morning was rising, a new day was starting. That morning God showed the East part of His glory through Abraham’s descendance. Lot left and Abraham believed in God, the God Almighty and knew God really loved him. Five righteous people couldn’t be found but Abraham’s family was spared.
And today, the church is crossing a serious situation; we sometimes forget we don’t meet God’s requirements in our lives. When Jesus was on earth, people reminded Him about God’s Ten Commandments. But Jesus answered; “If you can’t even practise 2 or 3 of them, how will you practise all of them?” This is why He gave us only one: love God with all your heart and love each other, love only and forget the rest. Up to now we don’t really know the meaning of love. Although we see a new day coming and we know grace is still here, and God’s only requirement is love, but we are still unable to do it. It’s a new revolution in the church. Today, if you want to see how people hate each other, go to churches: hatred, jealousy and everything that doesn’t glorify God is in the church. This man has a seal that will release everything because we keep refusing to obey Him and that will be the end of everything.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Revelations 6:2 Summary (the White Horse)
By Odon Bulamba (6 May 2005)
This verse is like a sword of Revelations because it cuts pieces into preachers and pastors and brings division between churches and it is a very big confusion. Satan is a deceiver and a liar and has come to deceive many of us (Mathew 24).
Jesus Christ wears a white robe but what colour was the robe of this rider? We don’t know the colour of the robe or if the rider had white hair. The horse has white hair but not white skin and when God talks about the colour white, He wants to signify something deeper that is not on the surface.
At the cross Jesus said, ‘it is finished’, so He already has the victory and the crown, but here the rider is now getting victory and receiving a crown. Satan thought it would be good to use a white horse because everyone will think it is God.
Satan uses servants of God to lose souls. The bow is there to destroy and kill and after killing many souls he was given a crown. Satan is the conqueror of the church today, he is leading more than 70% of churches. Six of the seven churches in Revelations were wrong because the rider of the white horse was among them. When satan came to Eve (the first church) he talked to her in a nice way and didn’t force her to eat the fruit.
People in churches today love success and honor and adoration and want to live higher than others, forgetting if they are servants of God they need to serve but they need people to raise them up and bow before them.
There is a bow but we can’t see the arrows because the strategy of satan against the church is to hide the arrows. This means, ‘I’ve finished my mission wherever I was, now crown me’. In many churches satan has been crowned, you can find tradition and fanatism. How many people from your church have visited you? How many times has your pastor visited you? Wherever there is an interest that is where us servants of God will go. If you don’t follow the law of the church, you’ll be excommunicated but where is the forgiveness? Satan is trying to remove Christians from churches and to split churches and the church will give the crown to satan.
In Zechariah, the horses pull a chariot and today satan is occupying the head of the church and pulls many Christians in a chariot and we think we are taken by God but it is really satan. The ecumenical council of churches is the chariot that is trying to put as many Christians in and pull them somewhere. If you just follow the church or the pastor it is a danger so ask God to guide you.
Avoid being a fanatic because fanatism can really destroy the church today.
One of the horses brings famine and this is not just physical but spiritual and today we are not well fed most of the time in churches and because of that, souls become sick, malnourished and don’t grow. When water stays a long time somewhere without moving it becomes stagnant and smelly. We are like that when we don’t grow; we get something impure deep in our hearts.
Deut 29:29, things that are not revealed to us belong to God so tell God you want to know.
SUMMARY
The white horse is not Jesus but satan because:
1. satan is a deceiver and liar and knows that riding a white horse will make people think it is God
2. Jesus said, ‘it is finished’ at the cross and already had the victory and the crown but this rider is just receiving it now
3. the bow represents the souls that satan is killing and destroying
4. we only know the horse is white but we don’t know if the rider wears a white robe or has white hair
5. in many churches satan has been crowned and given the place of victory (when we sin we are giving satan this right in our lives)
This verse is like a sword of Revelations because it cuts pieces into preachers and pastors and brings division between churches and it is a very big confusion. Satan is a deceiver and a liar and has come to deceive many of us (Mathew 24).
Jesus Christ wears a white robe but what colour was the robe of this rider? We don’t know the colour of the robe or if the rider had white hair. The horse has white hair but not white skin and when God talks about the colour white, He wants to signify something deeper that is not on the surface.
At the cross Jesus said, ‘it is finished’, so He already has the victory and the crown, but here the rider is now getting victory and receiving a crown. Satan thought it would be good to use a white horse because everyone will think it is God.
Satan uses servants of God to lose souls. The bow is there to destroy and kill and after killing many souls he was given a crown. Satan is the conqueror of the church today, he is leading more than 70% of churches. Six of the seven churches in Revelations were wrong because the rider of the white horse was among them. When satan came to Eve (the first church) he talked to her in a nice way and didn’t force her to eat the fruit.
People in churches today love success and honor and adoration and want to live higher than others, forgetting if they are servants of God they need to serve but they need people to raise them up and bow before them.
There is a bow but we can’t see the arrows because the strategy of satan against the church is to hide the arrows. This means, ‘I’ve finished my mission wherever I was, now crown me’. In many churches satan has been crowned, you can find tradition and fanatism. How many people from your church have visited you? How many times has your pastor visited you? Wherever there is an interest that is where us servants of God will go. If you don’t follow the law of the church, you’ll be excommunicated but where is the forgiveness? Satan is trying to remove Christians from churches and to split churches and the church will give the crown to satan.
In Zechariah, the horses pull a chariot and today satan is occupying the head of the church and pulls many Christians in a chariot and we think we are taken by God but it is really satan. The ecumenical council of churches is the chariot that is trying to put as many Christians in and pull them somewhere. If you just follow the church or the pastor it is a danger so ask God to guide you.
Avoid being a fanatic because fanatism can really destroy the church today.
One of the horses brings famine and this is not just physical but spiritual and today we are not well fed most of the time in churches and because of that, souls become sick, malnourished and don’t grow. When water stays a long time somewhere without moving it becomes stagnant and smelly. We are like that when we don’t grow; we get something impure deep in our hearts.
Deut 29:29, things that are not revealed to us belong to God so tell God you want to know.
SUMMARY
The white horse is not Jesus but satan because:
1. satan is a deceiver and liar and knows that riding a white horse will make people think it is God
2. Jesus said, ‘it is finished’ at the cross and already had the victory and the crown but this rider is just receiving it now
3. the bow represents the souls that satan is killing and destroying
4. we only know the horse is white but we don’t know if the rider wears a white robe or has white hair
5. in many churches satan has been crowned and given the place of victory (when we sin we are giving satan this right in our lives)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
REVELATION 6 (Part V) Who is the Rider of the White Horse
By Odon Bulamba (6th May 2005)
FANATICISM IN CHURCHES
You can see fanaticism in the church. For example if I ask sister Joan how many people from your church visit you? …How many times has your pastor visited you? Never. How long have you been in that church? For years.
So, why do you think he doesn’t visit you? If the pastor is busy, why doesn’t he send a deacon to do it?
If sister Joan was the Minister of Agriculture in that church, she would probably get a phone call a week. When the church has a personal interest or advantage they’ll make an effort to keep in touch and to have a good relationship, but they won’t with simple people like us.
This is what we see here with the white horse. Someone comes on a white horse but the real picture is hidden. God didn’t want to reveal clearly to John the role of the bow, so he won’t be shocked. In Chapter 16 we’ll come back to that and understand why and how this rider was on a white horse.
This is not the time of God’s tribulation yet. This one will start with the seventh trumpet: He will come Himself to punish the world, so that people can repent and go back to Him.
HOW WILL MEN MISTREAT MEN?
We are now talking about the tribulation coming with the seventh seal. This is when human beings mistreat other human beings. A Nation will decide this or that and another nation will also decide this or that. Now if NZ wants to say no! They will be answered: It’s the law! We clearly see Satan playing his role: he’ll put a law in a country, he’ll put a law in the system, he’ll put a law in the church, follow that law and everything will go right but sometimes, the law made by human beings is a law for perdition, misleading people.
You’ll see it clearly in churches to the point they can decide to excommunicate people. What about forgiveness? Jesus warns us about losing one of the souls He bought. A church can easily reject you because you’ve sinned, even without any investigation. Money is the only thing they’ll consider to keep you in the church, though. This is how Satan is even trying to take away Christians from the church. Satan will be given that crown: “Continue to reign on us. We want you to continue to guide us.”
CAN AN ANGEL COMMAND JESUS?
If Jesus was the rider, the angel’s voice saying: “Come” would command Jesus. And Jesus would obey. The question is: is Jesus a commander or was this voice commanding Jesus? Theologians are divided on that issue.
In Rev. 5: 2-3, everybody stayed quiet in heaven and nobody could stand up and say: “God, do this!” If the rider was Jesus, who can really command God? Angels, other creatures in the heaven … We know very well that our Lord is the commander, He is the guider and the leader and no one or no other power can lead him because he is sufficient. God Himself as Jesus would stand up in front of that crowd and … the Bible doesn’t say anything after that, that white horse disappeared.
He became conqueror of what, of whom, of God, of the world, of the church?
THE HORSES ARE PULLING CHARIOTS
In Zechariah, the horses were pulling something and wherever they were going this thing also followed them. Today it’s written in Thessalonians, Satan occupies the head of the church and he’s pulling many Christians in his chariot. We are not riding the horses but we are pulled behind thinking that God is taking us somewhere. One person leads the horse and many people are behind without knowing the direction or the destination. This is how today there is an ecumenical council of churches. It is the representation of that chariot trying to put as many churches as possible behind them to pull them all somewhere.
Think of a compass: in any position it’ll be, we’ll know where the North is. God wanted us to know that if his people are misled and don’t come back to Him, they’ll still face the North (God’s direction) of the compass. John learnt that six famous churches were not recognised by God, they were misled, their compass was in the wrong position. They were in a danger, and that’s why Jesus said that salvation is a personal matter. If you don’t work for your own salvation and you just follow a church, it’s a danger.
KNEEL DOWN SOMETIMES AND ASK GOD WHERE YOU ARE GOING
Open your Bible, kneel down sometimes and ask God where you are going. If God doesn’t respond, ask Him to guide you. You must know where you are going.
Ask God. Tell Him: “You said that at the end of the time things like that will happen? Am I really in the right church or not? We are meeting here with this small group, am I really in the right place or not? What Odon and other people tell us is it true or not? Open my eyes, open my mind, open my soul so that I’ll know the Bible and I’ll know the truth.”
By knowing the truth we’ll know where to go because if we don’t, we’ll disappear. Are we Balaams or Balaks? Are we blessing or cursing the people of God? If you’re not sure you should be here, don’t come to please others but ask God. “I want to know the truth and if there is no truth here, remove me from that group and lead me somewhere else.” Remember that salvation is a personal matter.
Many people will come in God’s name and take the Word of God to mislead Christians. They’ve studied how to mislead people with the Word of God. If an interpretation is not good, it’s easy to get lost with the Word of God.
The church is our family but inside a family there are sometimes problems: bad behaviour, difficulties, bad ways of talking, attitudes. If Odon belongs to my family and has a bad attitude, I don’t have to imitate him, I can live nicely. Let’s not become fanatics. Fanaticism represents one of the horses here.
PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL FAMINE
And one of the horses brought famine. And it’s not only about the physical famine, but also spiritual: we are not properly fed in our churches. Pastors can take a message from the year 1975 and they preach it again in 2005. This leads to spiritual sickness, our souls are malnourished.
And after 10 years in a church we’re still at the same level, Christians don’t grow. They go to church on Sundays, they pray but in their everyday life in the society, they are nasty, easily angered, they break things, hate people, criticise and destroy.
It’s like stagnant water: although the rain clean in it, if you slip and fall in it, your clean clothes will be stained green and you’ll stink. When water stays outside for a long time it stinks, gets dirty and even mosquitoes can reproduce. When Christians don’t grow they’re just like that water, we stay at the same level and we become like this intoxicated stagnant water. There is something impure, something wrong.
How many years have you been praying to God to change your life? “God, help me so that I’ll not be lazy anymore. Help me so that I’ll not talk so much …” For years. But everyday you just live the same life.
Why can’t you grow? It’s the secret of this verse Revelation chapter 6:2. There is something wrong somewhere. We have to find what it is. When we come to chapter 8 we will find it and pray for it, for our personal liberation. We are prisoners of small actions we do, character or habits, which are just hanging around our bodies. We need to get rid of them. God wants us to learn the difference between the four horses and what is behind them and makes our lives a bit wrong.
ASK GOD TO REVEAL TO YOU THE SECRET OF THAT VERSE
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
The secret of the Bible belongs to Him, so pray to God and ask Him for the truth, to convince you of the truth. If not you might read 10 books with 10 interpretations and get confused. Ask God to reveal to you the secret of that book and if he doesn’t want to reveal it to you put it aside and tell Him:
“God, because you don’t want to reveal this to me, I will not continue to kill myself with this horse. I’ll leave it there until the day you’ll convince me. The day you’ll convince me that the horse is Christ or Antichrist, that day I’ll believe.”
Challenge God, have that courage to tell God. Sometimes he just watches us go everywhere. So don’t get lost, talk to Him and ask Him for the revelation. He’s the only one who can reveal things to us.
Today, the devil worshipping church is looking for members. They can give you up to $70 000. It’s a curse. You might even receive a letter from them. Be careful with them. Because people have lots of financial problems, they want the money and by doing so, they become a member of that church. They give you the money and take a sample of your blood from your finger, put it on a piece of paper.
The world is reaching its limits. Satan acts clearly now, he doesn’t hide his actions. Please, be careful. Don’t take the money and lose your life
FANATICISM IN CHURCHES
You can see fanaticism in the church. For example if I ask sister Joan how many people from your church visit you? …How many times has your pastor visited you? Never. How long have you been in that church? For years.
So, why do you think he doesn’t visit you? If the pastor is busy, why doesn’t he send a deacon to do it?
If sister Joan was the Minister of Agriculture in that church, she would probably get a phone call a week. When the church has a personal interest or advantage they’ll make an effort to keep in touch and to have a good relationship, but they won’t with simple people like us.
This is what we see here with the white horse. Someone comes on a white horse but the real picture is hidden. God didn’t want to reveal clearly to John the role of the bow, so he won’t be shocked. In Chapter 16 we’ll come back to that and understand why and how this rider was on a white horse.
This is not the time of God’s tribulation yet. This one will start with the seventh trumpet: He will come Himself to punish the world, so that people can repent and go back to Him.
HOW WILL MEN MISTREAT MEN?
We are now talking about the tribulation coming with the seventh seal. This is when human beings mistreat other human beings. A Nation will decide this or that and another nation will also decide this or that. Now if NZ wants to say no! They will be answered: It’s the law! We clearly see Satan playing his role: he’ll put a law in a country, he’ll put a law in the system, he’ll put a law in the church, follow that law and everything will go right but sometimes, the law made by human beings is a law for perdition, misleading people.
You’ll see it clearly in churches to the point they can decide to excommunicate people. What about forgiveness? Jesus warns us about losing one of the souls He bought. A church can easily reject you because you’ve sinned, even without any investigation. Money is the only thing they’ll consider to keep you in the church, though. This is how Satan is even trying to take away Christians from the church. Satan will be given that crown: “Continue to reign on us. We want you to continue to guide us.”
CAN AN ANGEL COMMAND JESUS?
If Jesus was the rider, the angel’s voice saying: “Come” would command Jesus. And Jesus would obey. The question is: is Jesus a commander or was this voice commanding Jesus? Theologians are divided on that issue.
In Rev. 5: 2-3, everybody stayed quiet in heaven and nobody could stand up and say: “God, do this!” If the rider was Jesus, who can really command God? Angels, other creatures in the heaven … We know very well that our Lord is the commander, He is the guider and the leader and no one or no other power can lead him because he is sufficient. God Himself as Jesus would stand up in front of that crowd and … the Bible doesn’t say anything after that, that white horse disappeared.
He became conqueror of what, of whom, of God, of the world, of the church?
THE HORSES ARE PULLING CHARIOTS
In Zechariah, the horses were pulling something and wherever they were going this thing also followed them. Today it’s written in Thessalonians, Satan occupies the head of the church and he’s pulling many Christians in his chariot. We are not riding the horses but we are pulled behind thinking that God is taking us somewhere. One person leads the horse and many people are behind without knowing the direction or the destination. This is how today there is an ecumenical council of churches. It is the representation of that chariot trying to put as many churches as possible behind them to pull them all somewhere.
Think of a compass: in any position it’ll be, we’ll know where the North is. God wanted us to know that if his people are misled and don’t come back to Him, they’ll still face the North (God’s direction) of the compass. John learnt that six famous churches were not recognised by God, they were misled, their compass was in the wrong position. They were in a danger, and that’s why Jesus said that salvation is a personal matter. If you don’t work for your own salvation and you just follow a church, it’s a danger.
KNEEL DOWN SOMETIMES AND ASK GOD WHERE YOU ARE GOING
Open your Bible, kneel down sometimes and ask God where you are going. If God doesn’t respond, ask Him to guide you. You must know where you are going.
Ask God. Tell Him: “You said that at the end of the time things like that will happen? Am I really in the right church or not? We are meeting here with this small group, am I really in the right place or not? What Odon and other people tell us is it true or not? Open my eyes, open my mind, open my soul so that I’ll know the Bible and I’ll know the truth.”
By knowing the truth we’ll know where to go because if we don’t, we’ll disappear. Are we Balaams or Balaks? Are we blessing or cursing the people of God? If you’re not sure you should be here, don’t come to please others but ask God. “I want to know the truth and if there is no truth here, remove me from that group and lead me somewhere else.” Remember that salvation is a personal matter.
Many people will come in God’s name and take the Word of God to mislead Christians. They’ve studied how to mislead people with the Word of God. If an interpretation is not good, it’s easy to get lost with the Word of God.
The church is our family but inside a family there are sometimes problems: bad behaviour, difficulties, bad ways of talking, attitudes. If Odon belongs to my family and has a bad attitude, I don’t have to imitate him, I can live nicely. Let’s not become fanatics. Fanaticism represents one of the horses here.
PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL FAMINE
And one of the horses brought famine. And it’s not only about the physical famine, but also spiritual: we are not properly fed in our churches. Pastors can take a message from the year 1975 and they preach it again in 2005. This leads to spiritual sickness, our souls are malnourished.
And after 10 years in a church we’re still at the same level, Christians don’t grow. They go to church on Sundays, they pray but in their everyday life in the society, they are nasty, easily angered, they break things, hate people, criticise and destroy.
It’s like stagnant water: although the rain clean in it, if you slip and fall in it, your clean clothes will be stained green and you’ll stink. When water stays outside for a long time it stinks, gets dirty and even mosquitoes can reproduce. When Christians don’t grow they’re just like that water, we stay at the same level and we become like this intoxicated stagnant water. There is something impure, something wrong.
How many years have you been praying to God to change your life? “God, help me so that I’ll not be lazy anymore. Help me so that I’ll not talk so much …” For years. But everyday you just live the same life.
Why can’t you grow? It’s the secret of this verse Revelation chapter 6:2. There is something wrong somewhere. We have to find what it is. When we come to chapter 8 we will find it and pray for it, for our personal liberation. We are prisoners of small actions we do, character or habits, which are just hanging around our bodies. We need to get rid of them. God wants us to learn the difference between the four horses and what is behind them and makes our lives a bit wrong.
ASK GOD TO REVEAL TO YOU THE SECRET OF THAT VERSE
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
The secret of the Bible belongs to Him, so pray to God and ask Him for the truth, to convince you of the truth. If not you might read 10 books with 10 interpretations and get confused. Ask God to reveal to you the secret of that book and if he doesn’t want to reveal it to you put it aside and tell Him:
“God, because you don’t want to reveal this to me, I will not continue to kill myself with this horse. I’ll leave it there until the day you’ll convince me. The day you’ll convince me that the horse is Christ or Antichrist, that day I’ll believe.”
Challenge God, have that courage to tell God. Sometimes he just watches us go everywhere. So don’t get lost, talk to Him and ask Him for the revelation. He’s the only one who can reveal things to us.
Today, the devil worshipping church is looking for members. They can give you up to $70 000. It’s a curse. You might even receive a letter from them. Be careful with them. Because people have lots of financial problems, they want the money and by doing so, they become a member of that church. They give you the money and take a sample of your blood from your finger, put it on a piece of paper.
The world is reaching its limits. Satan acts clearly now, he doesn’t hide his actions. Please, be careful. Don’t take the money and lose your life
Monday, December 13, 2010
REVELATION 6 (Part IV) Who is the rider of the White Horse
By Odon Bulamba (6th May 2005)
I call this verse the sword of the book of Revelation because it cuts into pieces, pastors, their preaching and brings division in the church. Everyone sees something different in it. Ask God to convince you what the truth is in this verse. I’ve heard six different interpretations of this verse. What is good and what is not? Others say that the book of Revelation works together with the Word of God and nothing comes from somewhere else. To understand it, we don’t need history or other books or anything else.
One person’s study about the white horse in Revelation 6:2
Yes, the white horse was ridden by Jesus:
1. White throughout the Bible refers to God, Jesus: Revelation 1: 14 (Jesus’ hair), Revelation 2:17 (white stone), Rev. 3: 4 (dressed in white), Rev. 4:4 (elders dressed in white), Rev. 6:11 (white robe), Rev. 7:9 (white robes), Rev. 14:14 (white cloud), Rev. 19:11, Rev. 19:14 (white horses), Rev. 20:11 (white throne)
2. If you place this chapter in the time of the tribulation, we know that many souls will be saved at that time. So, Jesus is on the white horse and it’s a picture of the Gospel going out during that time. Rev. 7 shows a picture of a great multitude and they have white robes and in Rev.7: 14 John is told that these people come from the great tribulation. So, they are saved by the sacrifice of their lives.
So, there are lots of verses talking about white and referring to God, to Jesus, things that are pure or holy.
ABOUT THE WHITE COLOR
But here, it’s about a white horse and its rider. A horse is a strong animal, it can run and it likes wars. The second seal means that the tribulation has already started: God will allow this tribulation of men against men. So, through it, God will allow wars, famines and disasters; can Jesus then join these people and fight against the world?
If there were four horses and these four horses were called at different times, the first one is believed to be Jesus not because God said so but because of people’s interpretation of white and black (white must represent God, purity and black Satan, darkness). But somewhere God warns us that Satan is a deceiver, a liar. He will come and deceive many of us (Matthew 24, 2 Thess. 2), take a new appearance and he will come into the church so that people can trust him.
This is an army of four horses with different colors and when each horse arrives, something happens in the world. Satan thought it would be good to use the white horse because in Revelation, 19:14, there are white horses and now people are familiar to white representing God. Satan wants to win souls by deceiving; he uses servants of God to lose souls. If a priest stands up and talks about a topic; will you go and tell him he is wrong even if you’re convinced? Not easy. Or will you believe what he says just because he is a priest? Satan has found the way to lead people on a wrong track; just use the picture of the color in the book of Revelation.
The horse has a white color hair, but what about the skin, the flesh and probably the bones? Are they white? No. When God tells us about the white color he wants us to understand that white is not just on the surface but deeper. When we doubt, let’s stop and ask ourselves: “What does this mean? Why this white horse and why are there four horses together?”
ABOUT THE BOW AND THE CROWN
Why was the first rider given a crown, was it because he was Jesus or because he was a conqueror? Remember that Jesus said on the cross: “It’s finished”. He knew he had already conquered Satan; he had already been down there and picked up the key from him. He had already set the prisoners free and when Jesus came back alive, he had victory and told us that the Holy Spirit will continue.
A bow is to destroy and kill. After killing many souls, he came back with his bow and was now given a crown: “You a conqueror, you deserve a crown. You are the conqueror of the church.” Satan has been leading more than 70% of churches under the sun today. Just observe the power of God in our churches, in the world and the power of God in our lives.
Churches can have big buildings and if someone wants to become a MP, he/she asks the church to vote for him or her. The next step is for the pastor to open his Bible and choose texts from it to support his political views. When Jesus showed John the seven churches, six of them were big and famous but wrong. The rider of the white horse was among them.
Secondly Satan has a good strategy. If it was not so, he would never catch any souls. When he visited the first church on the earth for the first time (Eve, in the Garden) this Garden was pure, it was God’s making. If Satan had come as a human being, Eve would have run away, so he tried to find a gap where a serpent would fit to go through and reach the Garden. Once in the Garden, he changed his nature and started to speak like a human being so that Eve would not be surprised. He spoke in a nice way.
In the church today, people like success, they like to be adored. If you flatter a pastor, instead of humiliating himself, he will feel joy and he will feel like he is being taken to heaven. They forget the glory belongs to God and they forget to praise Him.
Servants of God are called to serve people of God first but now, they want to be served, they want people to bow in front of them. Pastors make decisions just because they are pastors and forget to pray and ask God what His will is. If the Prime minister comes to your church he will be welcomed differently from the other Christians. Why? Satan sends people in churches, people with power and arrows to kill souls.
Jesus wears a white robe but do you know the color of the robe that the rider of the white horse wore? We don’t know. We don’t know the color of his hair. We just know he has a bow. What is the bow for? If you have arrows, the strategy is always to hide them, at the back. You pull them and use them. Here the rider has only the bow and no arrows: so he has finished his mission and expects now to be crowned as a conqueror. How can Satan be crowned in the church? In many churches Satan has been crowned.
Observe well in churches when they have the Lord’s supper, read the Word of God and check what people are doing; you’ll see how they do it as a custom.
I call this verse the sword of the book of Revelation because it cuts into pieces, pastors, their preaching and brings division in the church. Everyone sees something different in it. Ask God to convince you what the truth is in this verse. I’ve heard six different interpretations of this verse. What is good and what is not? Others say that the book of Revelation works together with the Word of God and nothing comes from somewhere else. To understand it, we don’t need history or other books or anything else.
One person’s study about the white horse in Revelation 6:2
Yes, the white horse was ridden by Jesus:
1. White throughout the Bible refers to God, Jesus: Revelation 1: 14 (Jesus’ hair), Revelation 2:17 (white stone), Rev. 3: 4 (dressed in white), Rev. 4:4 (elders dressed in white), Rev. 6:11 (white robe), Rev. 7:9 (white robes), Rev. 14:14 (white cloud), Rev. 19:11, Rev. 19:14 (white horses), Rev. 20:11 (white throne)
2. If you place this chapter in the time of the tribulation, we know that many souls will be saved at that time. So, Jesus is on the white horse and it’s a picture of the Gospel going out during that time. Rev. 7 shows a picture of a great multitude and they have white robes and in Rev.7: 14 John is told that these people come from the great tribulation. So, they are saved by the sacrifice of their lives.
So, there are lots of verses talking about white and referring to God, to Jesus, things that are pure or holy.
ABOUT THE WHITE COLOR
But here, it’s about a white horse and its rider. A horse is a strong animal, it can run and it likes wars. The second seal means that the tribulation has already started: God will allow this tribulation of men against men. So, through it, God will allow wars, famines and disasters; can Jesus then join these people and fight against the world?
If there were four horses and these four horses were called at different times, the first one is believed to be Jesus not because God said so but because of people’s interpretation of white and black (white must represent God, purity and black Satan, darkness). But somewhere God warns us that Satan is a deceiver, a liar. He will come and deceive many of us (Matthew 24, 2 Thess. 2), take a new appearance and he will come into the church so that people can trust him.
This is an army of four horses with different colors and when each horse arrives, something happens in the world. Satan thought it would be good to use the white horse because in Revelation, 19:14, there are white horses and now people are familiar to white representing God. Satan wants to win souls by deceiving; he uses servants of God to lose souls. If a priest stands up and talks about a topic; will you go and tell him he is wrong even if you’re convinced? Not easy. Or will you believe what he says just because he is a priest? Satan has found the way to lead people on a wrong track; just use the picture of the color in the book of Revelation.
The horse has a white color hair, but what about the skin, the flesh and probably the bones? Are they white? No. When God tells us about the white color he wants us to understand that white is not just on the surface but deeper. When we doubt, let’s stop and ask ourselves: “What does this mean? Why this white horse and why are there four horses together?”
ABOUT THE BOW AND THE CROWN
Why was the first rider given a crown, was it because he was Jesus or because he was a conqueror? Remember that Jesus said on the cross: “It’s finished”. He knew he had already conquered Satan; he had already been down there and picked up the key from him. He had already set the prisoners free and when Jesus came back alive, he had victory and told us that the Holy Spirit will continue.
A bow is to destroy and kill. After killing many souls, he came back with his bow and was now given a crown: “You a conqueror, you deserve a crown. You are the conqueror of the church.” Satan has been leading more than 70% of churches under the sun today. Just observe the power of God in our churches, in the world and the power of God in our lives.
Churches can have big buildings and if someone wants to become a MP, he/she asks the church to vote for him or her. The next step is for the pastor to open his Bible and choose texts from it to support his political views. When Jesus showed John the seven churches, six of them were big and famous but wrong. The rider of the white horse was among them.
Secondly Satan has a good strategy. If it was not so, he would never catch any souls. When he visited the first church on the earth for the first time (Eve, in the Garden) this Garden was pure, it was God’s making. If Satan had come as a human being, Eve would have run away, so he tried to find a gap where a serpent would fit to go through and reach the Garden. Once in the Garden, he changed his nature and started to speak like a human being so that Eve would not be surprised. He spoke in a nice way.
In the church today, people like success, they like to be adored. If you flatter a pastor, instead of humiliating himself, he will feel joy and he will feel like he is being taken to heaven. They forget the glory belongs to God and they forget to praise Him.
Servants of God are called to serve people of God first but now, they want to be served, they want people to bow in front of them. Pastors make decisions just because they are pastors and forget to pray and ask God what His will is. If the Prime minister comes to your church he will be welcomed differently from the other Christians. Why? Satan sends people in churches, people with power and arrows to kill souls.
Jesus wears a white robe but do you know the color of the robe that the rider of the white horse wore? We don’t know. We don’t know the color of his hair. We just know he has a bow. What is the bow for? If you have arrows, the strategy is always to hide them, at the back. You pull them and use them. Here the rider has only the bow and no arrows: so he has finished his mission and expects now to be crowned as a conqueror. How can Satan be crowned in the church? In many churches Satan has been crowned.
Observe well in churches when they have the Lord’s supper, read the Word of God and check what people are doing; you’ll see how they do it as a custom.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Revelation 6:1-8 (summary)
By Odon Bulamba (29 April 2005)
Now is the time to undo the seals. Many people are confused with this book and we can find many different interpretations because Revelations is sealed to them. We need God’s help and assistance to understand this book correctly. Revelations is not a book of salvation but a book of what is to come and to confirm God’s plan and what He will accomplish.
Seven seals ¼ of the world will be destroyed
The tribulation is by men and God allows it
Seven trumpets 1/3 of the world destroyed
God brings disaster so the world will turn to Him
Seven bowls the whole world destroyed
God’s punishment on the world
(Rev 6:1) the living creatures talk through the first four seals
(vs2) John was an observer only. (Rev 1:1) We are called to know what will happen because without knowing we’ll lose hope and courage (Isaiah 29:11,12).
Four horses found also in Zech 1:8, 6:1-8. The rider of the white horse represents satan.
To be a conqueror we must fight because satan attacks us (e.g. Job) and if we don’t fight but surrender our faith, satan will say, ‘I’m a winner’. We have to learn from Job to persevere becauseif we don’t, we take the crown and give it to satan and he’ll be proud and say, ‘I’ve won’. This rider has been destroying pastors and churches.
(vs 3) The second seal releases the second horse, which is red, which represents power to bring war and power to influence men to kill each other. Today churches are crossing the biggest war among the different denominations, e.g. catholic vs protestant. The spirit riding that horse is in the church killing people, souls, behaviour, commitment, and the ability to love each other.
There is also physical war and at the moment there is ¼ of the world crossing war; if not with guns, it’s political. The red horse is not persecution of the church but war among us in the church. I’ve never seen a red horse in real life and in that same way we ignore the war that is going on in our churches. ¾ of Christians are crossing a cold war with others without knowing it.
(vs 5 & 6) The third seal releases the black horse, which represents something without joy, something that destroys the world. It’s a big institution called the United Nations and they weigh every thing (holding a pair of scales) for example the famine in Africa, war in Iraq and they intervene and try to put everybody in a black box and we can’t see how their system works.
(vs 6) the UN peacemakers feed the hungry and protect refugees, they weigh it up with scales and give to you poor food but don’t offer the important things (oil & wine). In Rev 18:11-13, see how important wine and oil is. The UN can decide on the price of your gold, or decide that they don’t need petrol from Iraq. The UN is a spirit called a system that decides (e.g. the value of $NZ) and it is an intellectual system which is being built but no one can see the result yet (666). The black horse is also in church today, many pastors can be bribed by politicians.
(vs 7& 8) the fourth seal releases the spirit of death and non-christians that die will go to shoal and will have to work for satan (John 10:10). Every year the number of deaths increases through sword, famine, sickness and wild animals. There are several ways to kill some one, you can kill the spirit or morale of a person through your way of talking.
This spirit is here to make the world to feel unbalanced. ¾ of the world today is hungry, even in Canada people beg on the street. There is also spiritual hunger in the churches because clean people in churches don’t want to be close to dirty people on the street. We have enough food physically and spiritually (Word of God) but how much do we help people, how much do we encourage the spirit of death. We have to struggle against the spirit of death because it’s the end times. We have a lot of sicknesses today that we never had before (HIV, ebola, even medicine will make you sick). The spirit of death is everywhere, in food, clothes, water etc, so it’s time to pray for God to protect His people. We can’t stop death but we can pray for God’s people. Green horse, people will think this is a new technology, a new discovery (e.g fruit & veges today look healthy but full of chemicals).
We are living at the end times and the four creatures are yelling from the four different corners of the world. (Zech 6). We need to know where they are now to know where they are working, e.g. NZ is in the South East so there are two spirits here, what dominates NZ and then we can know how to pray.
Homework:
What is the role of the horse?
Where are the four living creatures?
Who is the rider of the white horse?
Zech 1:, 6:1-8 (4 living creatures)
SUMMARY
- We need God’s assistance to understand Revelations
- We need to know what will happen so as to not lose hope or courage
- Fight satan’s attacks
Horse 1 = white = satan
Horse 2 = red = power to bring war
Horse 3 = black = UN
Horse 4 = green = death
Now is the time to undo the seals. Many people are confused with this book and we can find many different interpretations because Revelations is sealed to them. We need God’s help and assistance to understand this book correctly. Revelations is not a book of salvation but a book of what is to come and to confirm God’s plan and what He will accomplish.
Seven seals ¼ of the world will be destroyed
The tribulation is by men and God allows it
Seven trumpets 1/3 of the world destroyed
God brings disaster so the world will turn to Him
Seven bowls the whole world destroyed
God’s punishment on the world
(Rev 6:1) the living creatures talk through the first four seals
(vs2) John was an observer only. (Rev 1:1) We are called to know what will happen because without knowing we’ll lose hope and courage (Isaiah 29:11,12).
Four horses found also in Zech 1:8, 6:1-8. The rider of the white horse represents satan.
To be a conqueror we must fight because satan attacks us (e.g. Job) and if we don’t fight but surrender our faith, satan will say, ‘I’m a winner’. We have to learn from Job to persevere becauseif we don’t, we take the crown and give it to satan and he’ll be proud and say, ‘I’ve won’. This rider has been destroying pastors and churches.
(vs 3) The second seal releases the second horse, which is red, which represents power to bring war and power to influence men to kill each other. Today churches are crossing the biggest war among the different denominations, e.g. catholic vs protestant. The spirit riding that horse is in the church killing people, souls, behaviour, commitment, and the ability to love each other.
There is also physical war and at the moment there is ¼ of the world crossing war; if not with guns, it’s political. The red horse is not persecution of the church but war among us in the church. I’ve never seen a red horse in real life and in that same way we ignore the war that is going on in our churches. ¾ of Christians are crossing a cold war with others without knowing it.
(vs 5 & 6) The third seal releases the black horse, which represents something without joy, something that destroys the world. It’s a big institution called the United Nations and they weigh every thing (holding a pair of scales) for example the famine in Africa, war in Iraq and they intervene and try to put everybody in a black box and we can’t see how their system works.
(vs 6) the UN peacemakers feed the hungry and protect refugees, they weigh it up with scales and give to you poor food but don’t offer the important things (oil & wine). In Rev 18:11-13, see how important wine and oil is. The UN can decide on the price of your gold, or decide that they don’t need petrol from Iraq. The UN is a spirit called a system that decides (e.g. the value of $NZ) and it is an intellectual system which is being built but no one can see the result yet (666). The black horse is also in church today, many pastors can be bribed by politicians.
(vs 7& 8) the fourth seal releases the spirit of death and non-christians that die will go to shoal and will have to work for satan (John 10:10). Every year the number of deaths increases through sword, famine, sickness and wild animals. There are several ways to kill some one, you can kill the spirit or morale of a person through your way of talking.
This spirit is here to make the world to feel unbalanced. ¾ of the world today is hungry, even in Canada people beg on the street. There is also spiritual hunger in the churches because clean people in churches don’t want to be close to dirty people on the street. We have enough food physically and spiritually (Word of God) but how much do we help people, how much do we encourage the spirit of death. We have to struggle against the spirit of death because it’s the end times. We have a lot of sicknesses today that we never had before (HIV, ebola, even medicine will make you sick). The spirit of death is everywhere, in food, clothes, water etc, so it’s time to pray for God to protect His people. We can’t stop death but we can pray for God’s people. Green horse, people will think this is a new technology, a new discovery (e.g fruit & veges today look healthy but full of chemicals).
We are living at the end times and the four creatures are yelling from the four different corners of the world. (Zech 6). We need to know where they are now to know where they are working, e.g. NZ is in the South East so there are two spirits here, what dominates NZ and then we can know how to pray.
Homework:
What is the role of the horse?
Where are the four living creatures?
Who is the rider of the white horse?
Zech 1:, 6:1-8 (4 living creatures)
SUMMARY
- We need God’s assistance to understand Revelations
- We need to know what will happen so as to not lose hope or courage
- Fight satan’s attacks
Horse 1 = white = satan
Horse 2 = red = power to bring war
Horse 3 = black = UN
Horse 4 = green = death
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
REVELATION 6 (Part III)
By Odon Bulamba (29th April 2005)
THE PALE/GREEN HORSE
Sheol means the spirit of death.
If someone dies as a sinner, after his or her death the spirit will not go straight to hell. It will first serve Satan and Satan will put it in an army. For example, it will be told to go back to Shari’s family and try its best to destroy people who trust in God, and destroy peace. Remember in John 10: 10 Satan’s big mission is to destroy, to kill and to deceive. He doesn’t come to destroy what has already been destroyed.
This green horse doesn’t have much to do, just to bring death into this world.
DEATH
Just look at the figures in the world; every year, the death rate increases.
This death operates in different ways; sword, famine, sickness and wild animals. This is the spirit that kills. Some might think death will come through weapons and wars, but there are other ways to kill people; for instance our way of talking can be deadly. It can put the rest of someone’s life in danger. People might lose peace just because of our words. And Satan puts this spirit in the church to disturb the church and people don’t know what to do.
FAMINE:
Today ¾ of the world will tell you about food. Even in rich countries, some people lack food. NZ is really blessed because we can always go to Work and Income and be helped. But it’s not the case in other countries. For instance in Canada, for a single person, you might pay $380 for your rent and be given $500 per month! And Canada is one of the richest countries in the world.
There is also a spiritual famine. They have churches but few people believe in Christ.
There is a place in the world where people don’t wear clothes. This is what they do: they kill a camel, take its fat, boil it and put it on their skin. So, their skin is really shiny and you can see them from far. And when they come closer to you the smell is revolting. How would you like to sit with them and tell them about Jesus? They’ll ask you why, if Jesus existed he couldn’t give them water and make them like you? Their nails are really long and black (because of the dust). To give you milk, (from a goat or a camel), they’ll take it in their hands and offer it to you, no pots, and no cups. And I saw for the first time how they catch a goat and suck the milk from the goat and then offer you to do the same. Their teeth are green. Make sure you don’t vomit because for them, it’s a curse. If you go there you must accept the way they live and the way they are, otherwise they will not accept the Word of God.
Famine is everywhere and many people lack food or lack the Word of God. But you and I we have it in abundance, how much do we force ourselves to go to people? Or do we rather encourage the spirit of death to kill them? We need to win souls back to Jesus. Go to the Supermarket and say: ‘Jesus loves you”, I don’t know what people will think of you but the message will be given.
SICKNESS
Medicines that worked yesterday are not recommended today anymore because scientists have discovered there is poison in them. The spirit of death is at work: in water, in food, in clothes …We can’t stop it but we can pray for protection. We can pray for instance that nobody from NZ will be sick from that food or pray against any type of sickness.
Why is that horse green?
People boast today: this is the new technology, a new discovery, something new. But behind that there is something wrong. For instance fruit and meat look really good and healthy but inside it there is something wrong. In NZ they say healthy things don’t have fat and in Africa they say healthy things have fat. Fat meat is really expensive in Africa and here it’s the opposite.
CONCLUSION
We are living at the end of the times. These creatures are yelling and saying: Come. They represent the four corners of the world: North, South, East and West. In the book of Zechariah, the white horse is in the North, the green horse somewhere else etc. this is how they operate. Try to find who are these people, who are these spirits and what they do. Think about the location of NZ: East and South, so the spirits of the East and the spirit of the South will operate. How can we fight through prayers to wake up people, to wake up the sleepy souls and tell them the time is coming? Think about the role of a horse (strong, carry people, can run fast, don’t fear guns….) to help us understand how these four spirits lead the world.
THE PALE/GREEN HORSE
Sheol means the spirit of death.
If someone dies as a sinner, after his or her death the spirit will not go straight to hell. It will first serve Satan and Satan will put it in an army. For example, it will be told to go back to Shari’s family and try its best to destroy people who trust in God, and destroy peace. Remember in John 10: 10 Satan’s big mission is to destroy, to kill and to deceive. He doesn’t come to destroy what has already been destroyed.
This green horse doesn’t have much to do, just to bring death into this world.
DEATH
Just look at the figures in the world; every year, the death rate increases.
This death operates in different ways; sword, famine, sickness and wild animals. This is the spirit that kills. Some might think death will come through weapons and wars, but there are other ways to kill people; for instance our way of talking can be deadly. It can put the rest of someone’s life in danger. People might lose peace just because of our words. And Satan puts this spirit in the church to disturb the church and people don’t know what to do.
FAMINE:
Today ¾ of the world will tell you about food. Even in rich countries, some people lack food. NZ is really blessed because we can always go to Work and Income and be helped. But it’s not the case in other countries. For instance in Canada, for a single person, you might pay $380 for your rent and be given $500 per month! And Canada is one of the richest countries in the world.
There is also a spiritual famine. They have churches but few people believe in Christ.
There is a place in the world where people don’t wear clothes. This is what they do: they kill a camel, take its fat, boil it and put it on their skin. So, their skin is really shiny and you can see them from far. And when they come closer to you the smell is revolting. How would you like to sit with them and tell them about Jesus? They’ll ask you why, if Jesus existed he couldn’t give them water and make them like you? Their nails are really long and black (because of the dust). To give you milk, (from a goat or a camel), they’ll take it in their hands and offer it to you, no pots, and no cups. And I saw for the first time how they catch a goat and suck the milk from the goat and then offer you to do the same. Their teeth are green. Make sure you don’t vomit because for them, it’s a curse. If you go there you must accept the way they live and the way they are, otherwise they will not accept the Word of God.
Famine is everywhere and many people lack food or lack the Word of God. But you and I we have it in abundance, how much do we force ourselves to go to people? Or do we rather encourage the spirit of death to kill them? We need to win souls back to Jesus. Go to the Supermarket and say: ‘Jesus loves you”, I don’t know what people will think of you but the message will be given.
SICKNESS
Medicines that worked yesterday are not recommended today anymore because scientists have discovered there is poison in them. The spirit of death is at work: in water, in food, in clothes …We can’t stop it but we can pray for protection. We can pray for instance that nobody from NZ will be sick from that food or pray against any type of sickness.
Why is that horse green?
People boast today: this is the new technology, a new discovery, something new. But behind that there is something wrong. For instance fruit and meat look really good and healthy but inside it there is something wrong. In NZ they say healthy things don’t have fat and in Africa they say healthy things have fat. Fat meat is really expensive in Africa and here it’s the opposite.
CONCLUSION
We are living at the end of the times. These creatures are yelling and saying: Come. They represent the four corners of the world: North, South, East and West. In the book of Zechariah, the white horse is in the North, the green horse somewhere else etc. this is how they operate. Try to find who are these people, who are these spirits and what they do. Think about the location of NZ: East and South, so the spirits of the East and the spirit of the South will operate. How can we fight through prayers to wake up people, to wake up the sleepy souls and tell them the time is coming? Think about the role of a horse (strong, carry people, can run fast, don’t fear guns….) to help us understand how these four spirits lead the world.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
REVELATION 6 (Part II)
By Odon Bulamba (29th April 2005)
THE RED HORSE
It was given the power to bring wars on earth and to influence human beings to kill each other.
Some preachers say the war in Rev. 6: 4 is about wars we see around us, others say, it’s just the persecution of the church. But it’s not about the persecution of the church; it’s the war in this world and the war among us. We’re fighting against each other.
Have you ever seen a red horse? No, it’s something that doesn’t even exist.
How do we kill each other? If you want to solve a problem with someone (e.g. Joan), just think: “Joan can die!” or let’s move from there so that I’ll be free and never see Joan again. Many Christians practise that. They avoid each other in the street but we are not meant to avoid each other, but rather to go to the person, repent and change my way of living. Churches are in a big war; if you want to know about wars, just go to church.
If I go to a Catholic church and tell them I need help, they’ll ask me questions: ‘Do you pray? Are you a Christian? Which church are you from?” If you are from the Methodist church: “Sorry, we can’t help you. Go down there, you’ll find your church and they will be able to help you.” People are members of a certain denomination, they enrol you when they baptise you. You belong to them. In NZ you must first stay 2 years in a church to be called a member. The red horse has been fighting the church.
It’s an open war. The spirit riding the red horse is in the church, killing souls, and killing our way of life to the point that we don’t love each other as Jesus said. We are called to pray for each other, to support each other so that we can teach the world who we are and who we belong to.
This red horse is also in our physical life. Around the world you can see how wars are encouraged. They’ll go to Rwanda and encourage them to fight against another country. One fourth of the world is at war, physical or political war.
THE BLACK HORSE
Rev. 6:6. The rider has a pair of scales in his hand. That black horse doesn’t mean joy or something that feeds us but something that destroys the world.
Do you know what destroys the world today?
Today, there is a big institution called the United Nations. It’s a black horse. They have scales and they weigh everything, everywhere: in Africa, there is diamond let’s go there, there is oil in Iraq let’s go there … and they’ll encourage America to go and attack. If the Maori ask for help: we’ll deal with you later, continue to live in NZ. They are trying to put everybody in a black box.
But just go to their office and try to understand how their system works. This organisation is just destroying the world. This is who they are: first of all they are liars, then, when they see disasters coming, they just close their eyes and pretend it’s OK.
They use their scales all the time, saying: “We’ll weigh the best solution for you. We are peacemakers. When famine comes we feed people, wherever there are refugees, we’ll come and protect them … everywhere we’ll intervene.” But if the UN were so efficient, why do people still suffer? How many times do they sit down and sign agreements of peace, about pollution … what they do is: they’ll take the polluted things and give them to you and the whole system is just like what it’s written in Revelation.
Remember in Revelation chapter 18: 11-13, how wine and oil is important. Many people used to produce and sell it in Babylon and if Babylon didn’t accept to buy your oil or wine you’ll stay poor. Today we have a big picture of that market in Babylon: the stock market.
Have you ever wondered who holds the world market and who decides the price and value of the gold in NZ? It’s the share market. But who is that? It’s nobody; it’s a spirit that serves a system. At 7 am something will be US$1.6, and at 10am it will be US$1.0 and so on. So, who decides that? It is a spirit, an intellectual system. If someone says: “I don’t accept the price at the share market today”, they can close their shop!
Can you see how the number 666 starts to put their rails in every country? People can’t see the train yet but the rails are already in place. Every day on the news, they’ll tell you about the Share Market. And the day of 666, they will ask you for your ID, for that mark and if you don’t have it, they’ll tell you to leave. This is gradually coming. This is the black horse, it is already in action.
In churches today, I can testify that bribery is common especially between pastors and politicians to the point that a pastor will start telling his congregation who to vote for. So, if a whole church belongs to National, you are not welcome there if you have a different opinion. Politics are now in churches, people are morally or spiritually corrupted and they think that what they do is what every Christian must do. To be in a good relationship with my sister I must think Labour as she does, so I won’t offend her.
THE RED HORSE
It was given the power to bring wars on earth and to influence human beings to kill each other.
Some preachers say the war in Rev. 6: 4 is about wars we see around us, others say, it’s just the persecution of the church. But it’s not about the persecution of the church; it’s the war in this world and the war among us. We’re fighting against each other.
Have you ever seen a red horse? No, it’s something that doesn’t even exist.
How do we kill each other? If you want to solve a problem with someone (e.g. Joan), just think: “Joan can die!” or let’s move from there so that I’ll be free and never see Joan again. Many Christians practise that. They avoid each other in the street but we are not meant to avoid each other, but rather to go to the person, repent and change my way of living. Churches are in a big war; if you want to know about wars, just go to church.
If I go to a Catholic church and tell them I need help, they’ll ask me questions: ‘Do you pray? Are you a Christian? Which church are you from?” If you are from the Methodist church: “Sorry, we can’t help you. Go down there, you’ll find your church and they will be able to help you.” People are members of a certain denomination, they enrol you when they baptise you. You belong to them. In NZ you must first stay 2 years in a church to be called a member. The red horse has been fighting the church.
It’s an open war. The spirit riding the red horse is in the church, killing souls, and killing our way of life to the point that we don’t love each other as Jesus said. We are called to pray for each other, to support each other so that we can teach the world who we are and who we belong to.
This red horse is also in our physical life. Around the world you can see how wars are encouraged. They’ll go to Rwanda and encourage them to fight against another country. One fourth of the world is at war, physical or political war.
THE BLACK HORSE
Rev. 6:6. The rider has a pair of scales in his hand. That black horse doesn’t mean joy or something that feeds us but something that destroys the world.
Do you know what destroys the world today?
Today, there is a big institution called the United Nations. It’s a black horse. They have scales and they weigh everything, everywhere: in Africa, there is diamond let’s go there, there is oil in Iraq let’s go there … and they’ll encourage America to go and attack. If the Maori ask for help: we’ll deal with you later, continue to live in NZ. They are trying to put everybody in a black box.
But just go to their office and try to understand how their system works. This organisation is just destroying the world. This is who they are: first of all they are liars, then, when they see disasters coming, they just close their eyes and pretend it’s OK.
They use their scales all the time, saying: “We’ll weigh the best solution for you. We are peacemakers. When famine comes we feed people, wherever there are refugees, we’ll come and protect them … everywhere we’ll intervene.” But if the UN were so efficient, why do people still suffer? How many times do they sit down and sign agreements of peace, about pollution … what they do is: they’ll take the polluted things and give them to you and the whole system is just like what it’s written in Revelation.
Remember in Revelation chapter 18: 11-13, how wine and oil is important. Many people used to produce and sell it in Babylon and if Babylon didn’t accept to buy your oil or wine you’ll stay poor. Today we have a big picture of that market in Babylon: the stock market.
Have you ever wondered who holds the world market and who decides the price and value of the gold in NZ? It’s the share market. But who is that? It’s nobody; it’s a spirit that serves a system. At 7 am something will be US$1.6, and at 10am it will be US$1.0 and so on. So, who decides that? It is a spirit, an intellectual system. If someone says: “I don’t accept the price at the share market today”, they can close their shop!
Can you see how the number 666 starts to put their rails in every country? People can’t see the train yet but the rails are already in place. Every day on the news, they’ll tell you about the Share Market. And the day of 666, they will ask you for your ID, for that mark and if you don’t have it, they’ll tell you to leave. This is gradually coming. This is the black horse, it is already in action.
In churches today, I can testify that bribery is common especially between pastors and politicians to the point that a pastor will start telling his congregation who to vote for. So, if a whole church belongs to National, you are not welcome there if you have a different opinion. Politics are now in churches, people are morally or spiritually corrupted and they think that what they do is what every Christian must do. To be in a good relationship with my sister I must think Labour as she does, so I won’t offend her.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Praising God
“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29
“Kingdom”
This is the place where the king lives; “king” and “dom”. Where does Our King live? He lives in our hearts (1 Cor 12:9; your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you).
When we gave our lives to Jesus Christ, He gave us His Kingdom, we are heirs to the throne and if we overcome (as we read in Revelations 3:21) we will sit on this throne. So whenever we overcome sin and temptations, we are given the right to sit on the throne with God. Doesn’t this make us grateful? We who don’t deserve anything, God has given us the opportunity to sit at the right hand of God, all we have to do is avoid temptations.
Imagine the queen coming to New Zealand and as she is driving in her car, waving, she stops the car and says, “Hayley, come here, I want you to sit with me today.” Won’t I feel honoured and humbled and ready to say thank you? Imagine Donald Trump coming and saying, “the next apprentice will earn $500,000 and I have chosen Hayley”. Donald Trump who is capable of choosing anyone and he wants me who have nothing to offer him. I’ll be amazed. Or imagine Simon Cowell saying, “I have chosen Hayley to inherit all my money and riches” or Oprah Winfrey saying, “You are my new best friend, you are going to come and live with me and travel with me and be on the cover of my magazine”. It will be a surprise because we haven’t done anything to deserve it. We will be so thankful and grateful to receive these gifts and glory without having done anything.
So let’s really give God the praise He deserves because He has taken us out of the world and darkness and brought us His Kingdom and He lives in our hearts and so long as we overcome temptation, we have the right to sit on His throne.
“receive a kingdom”
Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit today, let’s pray we will receive the Kingdom of God here today and let’s pray for the Spirit to lead us and guide us as we worship God and thank Him and praise Him. Let’s ask the Spirit to remind us of all that God has done for us so we can make sure God is thanked and glorified and not taken for granted.
“which cannot be shaken”
When I think of the word, “shaken”, I think of earthquakes. A building that can withstand an earthquake is like the Kingdom of God, everything else around it can fall apart but God’s Kingdom keeps standing and it doesn’t matter how we feel and it doesn’t even matter if we believe it, because God can’t be shaken, no matter what. If we are in that Kingdom, then we are safe (in the same way we are safe in a building that withstands earthquakes) from all attacks, all situations, all problems. If the building can’t be moved, then neither can we.
So let’s pray against all evil spirits now remembering that the Kingdom of God cannot be shaken, or moved by satan. Let’s pray tiredness won’t shake us today, let’s pray sickness won’t shake us today, let’s pray fear or doubts or negative thoughts won’t shake us today, let’s pray….
“Gratitude”
A feeling of being grateful to someone for what they have done or given you. What do we have to be thankful for…..
- He died for us
- He forgives us
- He provides for us, comforts us, guides us, protects us, listens to us and answers us
- His perfect plan being fulfilled in us
“Acceptable service”
The best way to show God how grateful we are is to serve Him. We can use our mouths but that means nothing if it’s not backed up with our actions. Once a very good friend of mine told me I was her very close and good friend but behind my back she completely betrayed me. Being betrayed by a friend is worse than someone saying, “I hate you” and then betraying you because you expect it but when our friends betray us, it’s hard. So let’s keep that in mind when we go about our daily lives, ask ourselves, “is what I’m doing acceptable?”
Let’s thank God today because we have been meeting together on Wednesdays, Sundays, fasting, praying, encouraging one another and God found it acceptable and we are really privileged to be a part of that work. God also gave us gifts and talents and abilities and we can really praise God because we have used them for His glory. If you know you could have done better, that’s ok, just make a decision to do better next year but today let’s thank God for what He achieved through us. E.g. every third Sunday, every person has a role and everybody fulfils it and nobody needs a title, people do their role with humility and zeal.
“With reverence”
Godly fear. Often we fear people but we don’t fear God. We often worry about what others will think of us but we don’t worry about what God will think of us. Everyone will have different experiences of that. For myself, I often fear what people will think of me if I tell them about Jesus but I should only fear God who said to go and make disciples.
“awe”
Respect and admiration combined with fear because “Our God is a consuming fire”.
Dan 2:44, God is a consuming fire and He is a jealous God
2 Thess 1:7, He’s coming down with His angels with fire
Heb 10:27,31, He’s bringing judgement and fire will consume the adversaries and it’s a terrifying thing to fall at the hands of God
God can consume us in an instant (He is so powerful) and so we must fear Him. Without fear we can’t understand or appreciate what we have or what we have been saved from.
Praise God for who He is (a consuming fire)
Kind, good, gracious, powerful, peaceful, forgiving….
“Kingdom”
This is the place where the king lives; “king” and “dom”. Where does Our King live? He lives in our hearts (1 Cor 12:9; your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you).
When we gave our lives to Jesus Christ, He gave us His Kingdom, we are heirs to the throne and if we overcome (as we read in Revelations 3:21) we will sit on this throne. So whenever we overcome sin and temptations, we are given the right to sit on the throne with God. Doesn’t this make us grateful? We who don’t deserve anything, God has given us the opportunity to sit at the right hand of God, all we have to do is avoid temptations.
Imagine the queen coming to New Zealand and as she is driving in her car, waving, she stops the car and says, “Hayley, come here, I want you to sit with me today.” Won’t I feel honoured and humbled and ready to say thank you? Imagine Donald Trump coming and saying, “the next apprentice will earn $500,000 and I have chosen Hayley”. Donald Trump who is capable of choosing anyone and he wants me who have nothing to offer him. I’ll be amazed. Or imagine Simon Cowell saying, “I have chosen Hayley to inherit all my money and riches” or Oprah Winfrey saying, “You are my new best friend, you are going to come and live with me and travel with me and be on the cover of my magazine”. It will be a surprise because we haven’t done anything to deserve it. We will be so thankful and grateful to receive these gifts and glory without having done anything.
So let’s really give God the praise He deserves because He has taken us out of the world and darkness and brought us His Kingdom and He lives in our hearts and so long as we overcome temptation, we have the right to sit on His throne.
“receive a kingdom”
Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit today, let’s pray we will receive the Kingdom of God here today and let’s pray for the Spirit to lead us and guide us as we worship God and thank Him and praise Him. Let’s ask the Spirit to remind us of all that God has done for us so we can make sure God is thanked and glorified and not taken for granted.
“which cannot be shaken”
When I think of the word, “shaken”, I think of earthquakes. A building that can withstand an earthquake is like the Kingdom of God, everything else around it can fall apart but God’s Kingdom keeps standing and it doesn’t matter how we feel and it doesn’t even matter if we believe it, because God can’t be shaken, no matter what. If we are in that Kingdom, then we are safe (in the same way we are safe in a building that withstands earthquakes) from all attacks, all situations, all problems. If the building can’t be moved, then neither can we.
So let’s pray against all evil spirits now remembering that the Kingdom of God cannot be shaken, or moved by satan. Let’s pray tiredness won’t shake us today, let’s pray sickness won’t shake us today, let’s pray fear or doubts or negative thoughts won’t shake us today, let’s pray….
“Gratitude”
A feeling of being grateful to someone for what they have done or given you. What do we have to be thankful for…..
- He died for us
- He forgives us
- He provides for us, comforts us, guides us, protects us, listens to us and answers us
- His perfect plan being fulfilled in us
“Acceptable service”
The best way to show God how grateful we are is to serve Him. We can use our mouths but that means nothing if it’s not backed up with our actions. Once a very good friend of mine told me I was her very close and good friend but behind my back she completely betrayed me. Being betrayed by a friend is worse than someone saying, “I hate you” and then betraying you because you expect it but when our friends betray us, it’s hard. So let’s keep that in mind when we go about our daily lives, ask ourselves, “is what I’m doing acceptable?”
Let’s thank God today because we have been meeting together on Wednesdays, Sundays, fasting, praying, encouraging one another and God found it acceptable and we are really privileged to be a part of that work. God also gave us gifts and talents and abilities and we can really praise God because we have used them for His glory. If you know you could have done better, that’s ok, just make a decision to do better next year but today let’s thank God for what He achieved through us. E.g. every third Sunday, every person has a role and everybody fulfils it and nobody needs a title, people do their role with humility and zeal.
“With reverence”
Godly fear. Often we fear people but we don’t fear God. We often worry about what others will think of us but we don’t worry about what God will think of us. Everyone will have different experiences of that. For myself, I often fear what people will think of me if I tell them about Jesus but I should only fear God who said to go and make disciples.
“awe”
Respect and admiration combined with fear because “Our God is a consuming fire”.
Dan 2:44, God is a consuming fire and He is a jealous God
2 Thess 1:7, He’s coming down with His angels with fire
Heb 10:27,31, He’s bringing judgement and fire will consume the adversaries and it’s a terrifying thing to fall at the hands of God
God can consume us in an instant (He is so powerful) and so we must fear Him. Without fear we can’t understand or appreciate what we have or what we have been saved from.
Praise God for who He is (a consuming fire)
Kind, good, gracious, powerful, peaceful, forgiving….
Friday, December 3, 2010
REVELATION 6 (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (29th April 2005)
THE WHITE HORSE
Churches today are facing this serious problem. It destroys pastors, and churches, to the point that we go to church as a habit.
We can be pastors or bishops, but if God doesn’t reveal the content of this book, it will remain sealed and today there are different schools that give different interpretations. For example, some believe the book of Revelation is not a book of salvation but just a book telling us about the end of the world, things to come.
God wants to confirm in it that everything in His plan is true and will be fulfilled.
In the Chapter 5, we saw that the Lamb took the scroll from the right hand of God. It’s now the time to open it. The Chapter 6 tells us about the way the scroll was unsealed.
In the book of Revelation, we have three main things: seals, trumpets and bowls.
1. Seals: things or tribulation that will happen by men and God allows them to happen.
God punishes only one fourth of the whole world.
2. Trumpets: God Himself brings disasters in the world so that men can repent and go to Him.
God punishes one third of the whole world.
3. Bowls: God punishes the whole world.
Sometimes people ask:
Why does God make things worse on earth? Why does He make rich and poor people, short and tall people, …?
God’s answer:
I do this so that I can confirm who I am. I want you to know who I am. If injustice didn’t exist, God couldn’t leave the heaven and come to save us, so, salvation couldn’t exist. Jesus Himself went into a poor situation on earth, so that we could relate to Him. He came that way to bring us closer to Him.
Revelation 6:1
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like a thunder: “Come!”
John saw the Lamb taking off the first seal and one of the living creatures spoke like a thunder. It’s frightening. John was afraid and thought he was asked to come, but it was not for him. The four
living creatures spoke only through he first four seals and then they disappear. John then saw a horse and observed.
Revelation 1: 19 tells us that John was chosen to know the things to come. Prophets, the spirit of revelation at work in all of us allows us to know things that will happen. God does it for us not to lose courage when things come. He tells us in advance to prepare us.
Isaiah 29:11-12, the book of revelation can be understood only if God reveals it. It’s a warning for all of us. Many people wrote many books about it: they put together countries, situations, George Bush … with the book of revelation, and they sell books and make money. This is why there is a huge confusion about the Bible. Please don’t sell the Word of God: you were given it freely; give it to people freely too. We know that at the end of times, people and churches will be lovers of money. Today pastors can fight because of the tithe, offerings.
THE WHITE HORSE
John faced that problem here: when he saw the living creatures talking and one of them say: Come, he saw a white horse with its rider holding a bow and he was given a crown. It was called a crown of victory.
Many people think that everything that is white means purity, and they think white means God. This verse has brought contradictions in the church of God.
1. Some people say: it’s Jesus coming. But I’ve never read anywhere that Jesus rode a white horse and held a bow. It’s true that Jesus has a crown, but what kind is it?
2. Others say it’s the Antichrist
Who is the person riding the horse?
We find an identical picture of 4 horses in the book of Zechariah 8: 1 and 6:1-8. With these texts you’ll know which color represent which horse and who is who.
A conqueror is someone that fights something to become a champion.
Today the church is crossing a serious problem: Satan attacks people, attacks their souls. Someone might have been a Christian for years and still lacks patience or can’t make up their mind to live as a Christian, not to lie, not to judge people. Satan tries to pull men as much as he can to become a conqueror. He did it for Job and he is doing the same things with us: “If I attack Steve by touching Amber, he will fall”. Steve tries many things in his life and nothing works and he will feel his life has become heavy and Satan will come back to God and say: Look at Steve!
Satan is happy if we surrender our faith.
We must learn from Job: he persevered. This is how Satan will run away from your life.
If we can’t make up our mind we are just giving a crown to Satan saying: you are the conqueror, this is your crown.
But God asks: Why do you go to church, do you have a purpose?
When you eat your purpose is to make your body strong, but when you eat the food of the Word of God, what is your purpose?
We must know why we do it, why we pray …?
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