Walk With Me

Promises For The Endtimes

• JJ

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Hello everybody, welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I'm your host, JJ. It's good to have each and every one of you here. Thank you so much for liking and listening and sharing. And I'm appreciating all the feedback we're getting from you guys. Not so much on the YouTube channel. Can y'all just step it up over there on the YouTube channel? But on the iHeart channel and the email, uh, I really do appreciate it. I really do appreciate all of you guys. Uh, and that has prompted me. If you have any questions about what we are talking about, or if you have unrelated questions to what we're talking about, go ahead and send them to the email address at walkwithme Bible study at gmail.com. Walk with me Bible Study at Gmail. If I can answer the question in relatively short fashion, I will respond directly back to you. Um, and if if it takes a long time like this is actually a result of a question, it's one and just to know pretty much the A and Z to the end times. And then if it's a more involved question like this, uh, then I will make an episode of it or make a series of it. Um, and just to make sure that we cover every aspect of it. I know sometimes I feel like I just cover stuff and beat it to uh beat it to a pulp, but it's important that we don't skim over things because when we skim over things, it kind of leaves a a kind of a kind of a way for the devil to get in and confusion to get in, and then somebody can come along and fill in those gaps with lies or whatever. So that being said, um I may go through some stuff ad nauseum. I hope you guys are okay with that. I I see you guys listening, so I I just hope that's okay. But I just want to make sure these things are explained. Uh, because a lot of people are not explaining them. Some people even preaching on this stuff and not explaining it. So um, yeah, if you have any questions, oh, and also if you want to be addressed on the show with your question, put your name in the subject line. Now, and I get it. Um, the reason why that is because I'm going to assume that most people prefer their religious questions to be addressed in in private, um, sort of an anonymous sort of way, and that's just because people are really self-conscious sometimes with that. Um, and if you don't um want to feel subconscious, or some people think that they maybe feel like they know less than somebody or more than somebody, that's fine. Just don't leave, just leave the subject line line break blank if you don't want to um be addressed directly. All right. So that being said, quick shout out to our sponsors, to our silices, as quiz the creations. I can't wait for her to finish my Texans cup. Um, and that's gonna be coming up here in a couple weeks. Um, so that being said, I love each and every one of you. We're gonna go ahead and get right into it today because we have a lot to cover. We have to go back to these letters because I'm getting some questions on the letters. So rather than trying to email each and every one of you, I'm just gonna get these letters today. Um, and and it may be end up being a two-show, a two-episode answer. Now, these letters, it and by the letters, we're talking about the letters to the churches in Revelation. Remember, this is the end-time Bible study um series that was that started because of whatever happened back in October, right? Not gonna beat that horse. Um, but remember the letters that was in Revelation chapter 2, Revelation chapter 3, these letters were not specifically to a particular church more so than they were letters to a particular state of a church. Um, and we're gonna go through that and and maybe expand that a little bit, and and hopefully I can answer some of your questions. Um, and be you know, feel free to follow up or anything like that. I will be more than happy to follow up again. All right, so we talked about last week um the the settings, the physical settings of these churches, because there were churches in Layer the Sea, and there was a church in Philadelphia, and there was a church in Sardis and by Philadelphia. I'm not talking about Pennsylvania, talking about Asia Minor. Um, and it was named after Attalus uh Delphus, but I don't want to go back into that. Uh go ahead and check out uh the last episode and that'll explain that. But even though these churches had physical locations, they all sort of embodied um a sort of metal spiritual sort of condition, and this is what these letters were addressing. So in each any letter, you had a series of promises, like um in the first one they wrote to what God wrote to was Ephesus. And remember, God is telling John the Revelator what to write unto the church of Ephesus, unto the church of Smyrna, but you'll write these things. So the first thing that was in these letters was a promise, all right. So we're gonna talk about the promises that are given to each church today, um, in each type of church. We're gonna talk about this in Ephesus, and we're gonna look at Revelation 2 and 7, and thank you for reminding me. Thank you. Listen, if um when we talk about a set of scripture, are we going to be in this chapter all the rest this whole show? But I I beg you to read the entire chapter, don't take my word for it. Read a verse 2 above, verse 2 below, but preferably the whole chapter because uh context is key. Alright, so in Ephesus, the promise was, I will give to eat the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. That's Revelation 2 and 7. Pasmy, the promise was, you shall not be hurt of the second death. That's Revelation 2:11. Uh in Pergamon, the promise was, I will give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone. And in the white stone, a new name is written. Revelation 2 and 17. Now, let's talk about that one for a second. Because the other two seem self-explanatory. But this one, we gotta kind of talk about this a little bit because the hidden manna is what's called um, it's like a heavenly food. Remember, manna is a heavenly, heavenly food, and if it's hidden, that means it's a hidden hidden heavenly food that is hidden within God's word. Because we always talk about, we refer to God's word as the bread, bread of life, right? So the overcomer, because this is what these promises are geared toward, the overcomers that are in the churches, the overcomer would be able to have these deep truths that um that are revealed from the word of God to the overcomer. And there are overcomers in every particular church style. No, I'm not saying denomination, I said church style, because that I mean the physical stuff, sorry, the spiritual state of that church. Now that white stone in Revelation 2.17 is uh is a like a symbol of acquittal, like eternal acquittal. Like if if you like me or are really into history and you know about the era of the pirates, a lot of times uh the pirates would go to the local governor uh that they that they base him, and they will get a letter of mark. The letter of mark means um they're forgiven of their piracy, and now they can go out and they can sail for the crown. This white tablet, this white stone that is mentioned here in Revelation uh 2 and 17, it's like that, but on a spiritual heavenly scale. It's literally um it comes from the the custom that um back when we had ancient trials, jurors would vote for acquittal by laying down a white stone. You had a white stone, you let put a white stone down, and you were considered innocent. Now moving right along, Cyrus. You had to him, I would give power over the nation, and I will give him the morning star. Revelation 26 and 28. Now Jesus here is declaring himself to be the bright morning star, which is in 26 and 16. So this promise would have to mean that the overcomer would have the presence of Jesus Christ in his or her life. Yes, his or her life should have to have the presence of Jesus Christ. Moving on. Started, the promise was you should be clothed in white raiment, which shows a uh a renewing, a purity, a spiritual purity. I would not blot out his name out of the book of life, I will profess his name before my father, and that is Revelation 3 and 5. Hey, wait, JJ, you you just gave us the Trinitarian scripture. That is the glorified body of Jesus telling John what to write. So please understand that. And to Philadelphia, a killer in the temple of my God, I will write upon him the name of my God, which is New Jerusalem. I will write upon him my new name, Revelation 3 and 12. In other words, when you become a Christian and you become uh when you're given that new name, that's God's name you are getting. So if you're and I'm I'm not saying that you're a God. Please understand, I'm not what I'm not what I'm saying, that's not what Jesus is saying. What he's saying is just like when a man takes a wife and she takes his last name and she belongs to him, and of course it belongs to her as well, but she literally belongs to him. He is the completion of his flesh. And this is where a lot of people don't understand what marriage is about. Because marriage is a is not just about love, it's not just about happy ever after, it's about completion, and this is what God is trying to tell you. He's going to write his name on you. If you look through the New Testament, it often describes the church as the bride of Christ. So when the bride of Christ is ready, and it's time, they're going to take on Christ's name in baptism. It's like you're not betrayed, you're engaged to Christ. So when that when he finally does come and give you his name, then you will fully firmly belong to him. Your name will be written in the uh book of life, and you are you have a spot in heaven. And now in uh Laodicea, and every that's everybody's favorite one. I like Laodicea, but there's also promise there, too. I will grant to sit with me in my throne. You will have a personal audience with Jesus Christ for eternity, all the time, as much as you want. You can go and you can go and walk down the streets of gold and come back and sit at his feet and love on him. Right? So when we have uh we're gonna talk more about now, we're gonna start going into what these letters are. Now, there's um we're gonna describe each one of these churches. Ephesus was generally referred to as the desirable church. Now, as this church was, as the church was born, the apostolic church was the desired church. It was an early church where it's first love, it was like a burning, it was it was on fire for God, it was zealous, it preached the gospel, it preached the whole gospel all the time. It was it was exactly what Jesus wanted the church to be. Um, and so much so that the Lord sort of commended the uh church of Absolute. He said, I know your works, I know your labor, and your patience. And this church has was always faithful and serving the Lord and didn't grow weary and well doing, which is Galatians 6 and 9. There was faithfulness, uh, patience, and these are your two biggest Christian characteristics faithfulness and patience. Faithfulness and patience. Now, this was abound in the Ephesian church, and this church, one of the big um big qualities of this church that they did not tolerate evil, they separated themselves from the world, they didn't tolerate evil, they didn't accept just anyone as a minister, um, but they tried people to see whether they would be true, whether they knew the gospel, whether Jesus was in their life, whether they were genuine. And then finally, the Ephesus, the church of Ephesus, we're gonna wait for it. They hated the deeds of the Nicolatians. Yes, yes. I I I know, I know, I I know people will say that if you're a Christian, it's supposed to be just lovey duggy and and rainbows and sunshine. No, the Ephesian church hated what the Nicolaatians were doing. Now, who were the Nicolaitians? First of all, the Nicolaitians were uh it basically it came from two Greek words, uh Nico, uh the conquer, and Laya, the people. So they they were setting up more like a um a priestly order or more like a celestial dictatorship uh over God's people. So and Jesus basically told them that he hated this idea, he did not want the people who were serving him to be conquered, he wanted people who were serving him to serve him of free will, and he because he hated this so much, he commended the Ephesians for having the same attitude toward the Nicolatians. You hate the these are the Nicolaitians, which I also hate. Yes, don't tell me that God doesn't hate these, he doesn't hate people, but he does hate deeds, he does hate works that are not of Him. However, there was a condemnation in the Ephesian church, as wonderful as the Ephesian Church was, there was a condemnation. Jesus said has had a condemnation for the Ephesian Church because the church did not have their first love anymore. Now, this had to be something that was deliberately left behind. They had to have because it says, you know, you have left your first love. Not you sort of forgotten first love, not that um someone took your first love, they left their first love. It was a deliberate act of walking away from the love that they had at the beginning. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. It is very easy to lose your first love. You get that first church, um, that first church uh scandal, you know, and you get into that brother, that sister. It's very easy, very easy to get into a situation where you end up not quite as urban or not quite as uh locked in spiritually as you were right before that. As a matter of fact, if you don't get a hold of that, you will have this is where people end up leaving churches over church earth. We we talked about that a few a few uh episodes ago. But this is where it starts. When you leave, when you make the conscious or subconscious decision to leave your first love, and once you've done it, you may not even know it. You may end up um looking back saying, hey, I don't I don't pray as hard as I used to, or I don't um worship as hard as I used to, or I don't hit the altar every day like I used to, or every service like I used to, or I don't pray with people in the altar like I used to. That's when you know that you need there's a need of a need of correction, there's a need of uh of coming back and and re uh reigniting that desire and that love for God and the things of God and God's goal, God's desire. So when that condemnation came back, he says, Hey, listen, I you've left your first love, you're not the same brother that you were when you prayed through. But even though, even though there was this this condemnation, there was a kind of a way back. And Jesus always left a way back, and this is this is where a lot of people kind of get lose the idea of living for God. Now, notice I keep I'm not saying Christianity, I'm saying living for God because people have sort of muddied this term Christianity. So when I say living for God, this is basically what I mean, but on a more intrinsic level, right? The act of living, uh leaving your first love is kind of a failing. But God was admonishing the church to repent. The first thing to repent, you have to repent to return back to your first love. Now I'm not saying that you're back sleep, but this is the first step to backflip. You will see, even in the New Testament, there is a heavy emphasis on staying in repentance. Yes, you're gonna have to there's gonna be things that you had to repent of that you did. There's gonna be things that you have to repent of that you didn't even think you were right, but it's about making sure that your soul is right, and so this is the definition here is that they have to repent to get back to their first love. Now, the danger of your candlestick being removed, because it has to be said, either repent or I'm gonna take your candlestick out. Now, that candlestick it symbolizes the fire of the Holy Ghost and the light of Jesus in your life. And trust me, there are many people sitting in church views right now, they come every service, they don't have their candlestick anymore. Now, can Jesus give that candlestick back? Yes. What do they have to do? They have to get in that altar and they have to repent. They have to repent. And trust me, as someone build this full disclosure here, Walkers, as someone who has back lived before, it Is a very difficult way back. So I would suggest not allowing this to happen. And if you haven't gotten the baptism of the Holy Ghost, it's it's a totally different thing, but you still have to repent. It's just a total different different process because we kind of know those roads to get back to where we have to be, and you've never traveled that road, and that's fine. So I would say get somebody who has it and can talk to you more about it. Or you know, you guys can listen to the podcast together, and there's many, many episodes on this. But making sure that you don't have your candlestick removed is critical. It's critical because that means you are backlit. Now, there's one more stage after being backlit. Because even if you're backflip, you are lost at this point. Because I I feel like I should talk about this. There is a difference between being backflip and being reprobate. Now, trust me, you don't want to be reprobated. Well, well, honestly, you don't want to be backflip either. But to be backflip, which means you went back to the world, or or you don't have the candlestick in your spirit anymore, you don't have the fire, you don't have the lighting, you're just kind of going through the motions, you are already in the process of backsliding. Consider it like a big oak tree. We had a big oak tree at the first place we moved down here. Nice, it was a beautiful oak tree. But what we didn't know is that inside that trunk, so the entire trunk was brought out, it was dead. But on the outside, it looked really, really, really nice. The inside was brought it out. Guess how we found out that that tree trunk was brought out. Even when we saw little little signs, like there was ants all over it, I mean the big carpenter ants. But when we had a hurricane and we lost half the tree, and then we looked at it, we said, oh my, that whole tree brought it out again. This is how spiritual, um, this is how backsliding is to the uh to the life of the of the person who's living for God. When it when that that life comes out of you, that that mechanism, that fire, that that cleansing uh agent comes out and is not there, it it's bad. Jesus referred to uh there was a parable where Jesus says, when a man when a person comes to get the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost comes in and cleans up his life. But when all of a sudden, when the spirit departs from the man, and an evil spirit comes and finds that his spirit is clean, swept, and varnished, he goes back and gets seven worse than himself, and then he comes and now the end state of the person is worse than the beginning state. This is what this whole candlestick is. Alright, so you don't want to get into a position where and and it's easy, it's easy, it's easy. I'm not condemning anyone in that position right now because I've been there. It is very easy to wake up one day and realize how far you are away from God. Jesus gave us a way back. That admonition is not the condemnation. I'll say this again the admonition is not the condemnation. Repent and come back, repent and come back, come back, and you'll get your candlestick back. It's hard, it's hard. I'm not gonna lie, it's better that you don't backslide to begin with, but it's hard. So, and I'm I'm not sure who this is um reaching out to because I feel like I'm way off on a tangent, but I feel like God wanted me to say that. So, um, with that being said, we're gonna go ahead and wrap it up a little early today because I I've noticed now I kind of need to make sure we end everything the way it's supposed to end. Love each and every one of you. God bless you all. See y'all on the next one. Remember to like and share. Thank you all so much for you guys sharing it on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all so much. Love each and every one of you. God bless you. See you on the next one.