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FEEDING GOD’S ELECT
From where do we feed? In the book of Isaiah we find Isaiah’s name means:“Salvation of the Lord.”
He was the greatest of the writing prophets. He carried on his ministry in Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns
of four kings, a period of about sixty years. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken,
I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows his owner, and the
ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked
the holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward” (Isa 1:2 - 4).
Did you notice in verse 3, the striking comparison, our Lord made through the prophet Isaiah? He said,
even the donkey, which many people consider to be a stubborn or stupid animal, knows where its nourishment
comes from!
God is telling Judah and Israel today, His called people and nations, have turned their back on the very
source for their existence! The house of Judah and house of Israel, are being told, they could not find its master's
crib! Just how ignorant should we consider the stupid donkey to be, after all?
We all know what Proverbs 29: 18, tells us! “Where there is no vision, [revealed perception] the people
perish.”
Humanity today possess God's word in writing, it’s called the Bible. This book contains the keys, that
if kept, would produce fantastic blessings beyond people's wildest imaginations. Yet few understand God's
word. Few, in deed, even try to!
That is not the case for the truly called and chosen people of God. We, know God has opened our minds
to understand His holy truth. And, He expects us to be sufficiently grateful to study His words of life!
By reading the Bible we can consume spiritual nutrition that will stabilize and sustain the weakest called
through these troubles of times ahead, and those beginning times of sorrow, that have started,
So to whom do you go when confronted with the tribulation? Do you stumble on blindly, wondering how
such a thing could be happening to you? Do you become more and more confused and disillusioned? Do you
find yourself turning to this world’s pleasures for comfort? Or do you, as God encourages us to turn to Him, and
His revealed truth for answers, encouragement and confidence?
God's instructions, found in our Bibles, are like golden kernels of grain, teeming with extremely
nutritious, values when “eaten.” When taken in after being called our spiritual appetite, “hungers and thirsts for
righteousness”as seen as “Our first love!”
Matthew 5: 6 says, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness: for they shall be
filled.” These kernels of God’s word supercharge us with satisfying spiritual energy to fight off Satan. This is
the highest form of energizing that humans can find for comfort. Notice John 6: 57, 63, “As the living Father
has sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me.” Vs. 63, “It is the spirit that
quickeneth; the flesh profits nothing: the Words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
The front and back covers on our Bible are like crib sides, holding those life giving grains of goodness.
God wants us, to look to His crib on a daily basis for sustenance and nourishment. We know this world will
not! The world is blinded to God's truth, even though millions may have Bibles, ( all-be -it) many covered with
dust) in their homes. We dare not be of that number, we dare not be blinded as modern-day Israel and the world
at large is!
God desires is that the house of Israel and all mankind come to know Him. “For I would not, brethren,
that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part
is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written,
there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant
unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as
touching the election, they are beloved for the Fathers' sakes” (Rom. 11:25 - 28). The Apostle Paul tells Timothy,
“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2: 4) . Thankfully,
all will in due time, according to the schedule ordained by God.
Isaiah tells us of blessings foreshadowing in God’s kingdom. “And in that day shall the deaf hear the
words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall
increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the holy One of Israel” (Isa 29:18 - 19).
Day - to day, God has allowed Satan to keep the world blinded to its incredible future human potential.
Our calling opens the door for God to reveals it to us, His holy purpose. Can we see how privileged we are?
“And the disciples came, and said unto Him, why speak you unto them in parables? He answered and said unto
them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever ha s not, from him
shall be taken away even that he has. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see
not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias,
[Isaiah] which saith, by hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not
perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed;
lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they
hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you
see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them” (Matt. 13:10
- 17).
We are called to a great commission, to publish and warn the world of God's great soon coming kingdom
to an apathetic, dying world!
Qualifying for salvation requires that we be involved in fulfilling this commission as ambassadors. “Son
of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give
them warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked, you shalt surely die; and you give him not warning, nor
speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity;
but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor
from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. Again, when a righteous man
doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die:
because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall
not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that
the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also you have delivered your
soul” (Ezek. 3: 17- 21).
Now notice in the New Testament, where Christ tells us He is given all power! “Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying, all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have Commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Amen” (Matt 28: 18 - 20).
We must know where our master's crib is, and be partaking of it regularly and in sufficient quantities!
The apostle Peter illuminated an Old Testament example that will help us see why we must dine daily from our
master's spiritual crib. In 2 Peter, Peter wrote of some wicked people “Who have forsaken the right way,” they
had followed at one time. “Who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, Following the way of Balaam
the son of Boer, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass
speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet” (2 Peter 2:15-16).
Balaam can be seen as a type of blinded house of Israel and this world, in terms of spiritual malnutrition
and starvation. Balaam, at best, fed on the worthless tares or chaff. He made his own- decisions and his example
was recorded for our admonition today! “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the World are come” (I Cor. 10:11). The whole point is that
Balaam did not learn to obey God’s instructions and he did not repent.
Focusing now on what we are to live by today. Jesus, while correcting Satan during the greatest battle
ever fought said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”
(Matt. 4:4). We are made incomplete. Man needs God's Holy Spirit. We are told in 1 Corinthians, “But as it is
written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by His spirit: for the spirit searches all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is
in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches;
comparing Spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God: for they
are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:1 9-14).
In this life, we are susceptible to Satan's broadcasting, to do evil that leads to death. Before our calling
we were servants to unrighteousness, but are now to be ambassador servants of God. “And you has He quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (By
grace you are saved;). And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”
(Eph 2: 1- 6).
We must avoid Satan's empty worthless tares and chaff, the lighter and fluffier, “Passing pleasures of
sin.” Notice the message Paul told the Galatians in Gal. 3:1, “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that
you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”
Their action exhibited a lack of understanding and reason!
We are admonished to love not the world by the Apostle John. “Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And
the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides for ever” (1 John 2:15-17).
The human heart can never find satisfaction with the love of this world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of
the flesh and the pride of life! One more note on this subject is found in the faith chapter of Heb. 11: 25, it
speaks of Moses faith. “Moses choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season.”
God has given us the bread of His life, His words to guide and sustain us. He desires us to feed from His
cribbage of food. The Bible you and I read and study is our Master's crib! It contains the words leading to
eternal life, provided we obey them.
The golden grains of life are free and plentiful, but they will be of no use to us until we decide to ingest
them, by doing that will help us to walk after the spirit. “Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness? But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of
righteousness” (Rom 6: 16 - 18).
We must feed from God's crib while there is time. Christ has warned, in the book of John, “The night
is coming when no one can work” (John 9: 4). Satan's wrath will be great upon this earth. “Therefore rejoice,
you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come
down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time” (Rev 12:12). We are starting
to enter the time of living that great wrath.
Matthew 24, reveals if Jesus the Christ does not intervene in man's affairs, there would be no flesh saved
alive. ‘For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor
ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake
those days shall be shortened” (Matt. 24:21-22).
This horrible tribulation period in the world will reach into the lives of every man, woman and child on
earth. We can read of the trouble ahead in Revelation 6: 3-11, such as false christ’s; war= and peace taken from
the earth; famine= food being scarce and over priced; death by pestilence’s; upset weather; death by martyrdom;
heavenly signs= along with earthquakes! All these signs are happening today.
After reading of all these signs in Revelations, means we dare not waste one precious minute of time on
sinning! Jesus Christ exhorts us to study to survive: “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman
that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). Further in 2 Timothy, we find
Christ sending us a warning: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being
deceived. But continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom
you have learned them; and that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you
wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim 3:13 - 17).
The apostle Paul was exhorting the evangelist Timothy to study to be able to survive. God uses this same
exhortation for us. “On whom the ends of the ages have come” (I Cor. 10:11).
We are the elect of God. He has opened our eyes to see and our ears to hear, He expects that we heed
what we see and what we hear from Him. We know who our Master is. We know what constitutes His spiritual
crib. We know our Master will never hinder our dining freely from His instructional food supply, His Word.
Who then, can stop us from spiritually maturing? God won't! Satan can't. Only you and I can stop our
spiritual healthy growth, “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4: 13)
Isaiah says, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease
to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of
the land: But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. Time is short. Don't be like Balaam.
Eat daily from your master's crib, and reap everlasting life! ☜
James Russell