Stubborn As Mule

11 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

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annual Feast days, Atonement, birth, blasphemous, celebrators, Christmas, death, discipline, Easter-Sunday, First Fruits, goad, Good Friday, hol-i-days, Holy Spirit resisters, lies, moedim, myths, paganism, pain, Passover, Pentecost, resurrection, stiff-necked people, stubborn, Tabernacles, Traditions of Men, Trumpets, unaffected, unaltered, Unleavened Bread, unmoved, unwilling, YeHoVah, Yeshua

I composed this poem on December 8, 2019, after seeing so many Christmas postings in my Facebook newsfeed that professed Christians posted. It is hard to believe that – in this twenty-first century – so many who declare they are Christians are still kicking against the goads (are still refusing to hear YeHoVah’s Voice about not following/not keeping the traditions of men). They have closed their souls and their ears to His Truth – choosing to be unfaithful to His Will and His Ways. Perhaps the real problem is that they are Christians instead of Netzarim (faithful servants/disciples/saints of Yeshua).

By stubbornly refusing to obey YeHoVaH, Christmas celebrators and believers are driving their individual goad in deeper and deeper. Choosing to be unfaithful to YeHoVaH’s Divine Truth, by rejecting the Holy Spirit’s teaching/revealing, causes the necessary pain that comes from His Discipline, which eventually will happen to them, if it hasn’t already begun. Selah . . . .

Why would you be so stubborn as to close your hearts and your ears to me? You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just like your forefathers! – Acts 7:51, TPT

Christ’s Saints Are Barley Overcomers – Christ’s Carnal Believers Are Tribulation Wheat

02 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Bible Prophecy

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appointed times, Barley Believers, Bride of Christ, carnal believers, conquerors, feast days, First Fruits, first resurrection, glorification, Grapes, greater Harvest, holy, justification, overcomers, Passover, Pentecost, saintly overcomers, saints, sanctification, Tabernacles, three classes of people, Unleavened Bread, unsaved believers, victorious, Wheat Believers

The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words. – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, MSG

…To the one who overcomes I will give access to feast on the fruit of the Tree of Life that is found in the paradise of God. – Revelation 2:7, TPT

…To everyone who is victorious I will let him feast on the hidden manna and give him a shining white stone. And written upon the white stone is inscribed his new name, known only to the one who receives it. – Revelation 2:17, TPT

To everyone who is victorious and continues to do my works to the very end I will give you authority over the nations – Revelation 2:26, TPT

And the one who experiences victory will be dressed in white robes and I will never, no never erase your name from the Book of Life. I will acknowledge your name before my Father and his angels. – Revelation 3:5, TPT

For the one who is victorious, I will make you to be a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, permanently secure. I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the New Jerusalem, descending from my God out of heaven. And I’ll write my own name on you. – Revelation 3:12, TPT

And to the one who conquers I will give the privilege of sitting with me on my throne, just as I conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. – Revelation 3:21, TPT

The Bride of Christ (the collective Body of His Saints) is the prophesied Barley Harvest of Overcomers (Victorious Conquerors) – the glorified firstfruits who are raptured before the Tribulation Period begins.

The Non-overcoming Carnal Believers are the Tribulation Period’s Wheat because they resemble Tares. These Wheat believers are the ones who have not cooperated with the Holy Spirit’s sanctification process (have not allowed Him to gradually change them into the image of Christ).

Prophetically speaking, the Barley Harvest represents the first of God’s three end-time Harvests and, thus, part of the first resurrection. The Scripture refers to these saints as “overcomers.” Additionally, God’s first three feast days – Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits – spiritually represent the three stages of salvation: 1. justification (Passover), 2. sanctification (Unleavened Bread), and 3. glorification (First Fruits). Just as Jesus Christ was the first holy and saintly Barley Harvest Overcomer to be resurrected from the dead as the Barley First Fruits of the greater Barley Harvest to come, the Bride of Christ also represents the rest of the holy and saintly Barley Harvest of Overcomers.

It is written that only Christ’s holy and saintly overcomers – the spiritually mature believes who are transformed into the image of Christ – will either be resurrected from the dead as part of the first resurrection or raptured alive BOTH happening during the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. These are the saints who will rule and reign on the earth during Jesus Christ’s millennial reign. Please note that no matter if God is speaking literally or figuratively, it also is written that the Barley Overcomers (symbolizing the barley grain that always is planted AFTER the Wheat) is always harvested before the Wheat.

The natural (physical) and spiritual orders of the grain harvests are why the Wheat Harvest represents “carnal believers who today are mostly ‘Christian’ churchgoers.” These carnal believers are the end-time gathered Gentile nations. Indeed, Christ’s Gospels’ description of the gathered nations is a picture of God’s Wheat Harvest (see Matthew 25:32, Mark 13:27). It is written that all nations will come to know the Lord and serve Him.

This second harvest speaks of those believers who were justified by faith, but either they did not go through or did not submit to the Holy Spirit’s sanctification process. Many of these carnal believers will also be first resurrection believers, but just barely. They will be saved but have the smell of smoke on them. Furthermore, the alive end-time Wheat (carnal) believers will need to be shifted like wheat in order to become fully sanctified so that they can wear God’s Divine Nature and Character (be glorified). Unfortunately, they will be the beheaded Tribulation martyrs.

Carnal believers who are Wheat still have some rebellion or lawlessness in their lives that must be purged by the Fire of God (the Holy Spirit). The only way for this purging to happen is for this Wheat to be exposed to the Antichrist’s wrath during the prophesied end-time Tribulation. The believers who are part of the Wheat Harvest will be brought forth in the second resurrection (Tribulation Period’s Rapture) to be glorified “ yet so as through fire.” The apostle Paul writes:

Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. – 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, MSG

If Christ’s believers are not saintly overcomers – victorious over the flesh, the world, and the devil – they are not Christ’s Barley Bride. It is only with the aid of the Holy Spirit that saints who become overcomers are able to control their flesh, conquer the corrupt world systems, and defeat God’s enemy the Devil. Selah (pause and calmly think about that)!

NOTE: God established that three of His seven commanded appointed times (feast days) would be associated with two different grain harvests and one fruit of the vine harvest that took place annually in Israel. The barley grain ripens first around the time of First Fruits, the wheat grain ripens later around the time of Pentecost, and the grapes from the vine ripen last just prior to the feast of Tabernacles. Moreover, God established that these three crops (barley, wheat, and grapes) would also depict, spiritually speaking, three classes of people. The Barley represents the holy and saintly overcomers, the Wheat represents the carnal believers, and the Grapes mostly represent the unsaved unbelievers.

Three Main Harvests Of Souls

20 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Faith and Wisdom

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agricultural harvests, agricultural-related feasts, crushing, final judgment, harvest metaphors, Harvests of Souls, Passover, Pentecost, sifting (sieving), spiritual harvests of souls, Tabernacles, threshing, tribulum board, winnowing

I will give you rains at the right season; the land will produce crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will continue until it is time to plant. Then you will have plenty to eat and live safely in your land. ~ Leviticus 26:4-5, NCV

God can use a metaphor better than the most gifted writers. For example, He takes the Old Testament’s annual two grains and one fruit agricultural harvests and develops them into well-defined metaphors that describe the New Testament’s spiritual harvests of souls—those saved believers who enter into the Kingdom of God (see the rich harvest imagery in Matthew 9:36-38; John 4:35-36).

Now, in order to understand His metaphors, the three spiritual harvests of souls, believers first need to understand the significance of God’s three mandated major festivals that He situates within aforesaid agricultural harvests. The three agricultural-related mandated feasts that all Jewish men who, more than likely, are 20 years of age and older, had to attend are the Passover Feast, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16). Moreover, the two different grain harvests and the one fruit harvest that are compared to three spiritual harvests of souls are the Barley Harvest, Wheat Harvest, and Grapes Harvest—these harvest metaphors depict God’s harvest times as a time of opportunity in the here and now, and a time of final judgment.

It is important to note here that every crop of grain and fruit will have firstfruits (the grain and fruit of every crop that ripens early), and every crop of grain and fruit will experience a time of separation. When the crop is ripe, it is harvested by separating the chaff or the refuse. Thus, mature barley goes through a time of separation or winnowing. Using a wooden fork or “fan,” winnowers throw the gathered barley against the wind so that the wind can separate the chaff (husk) from the grain. On the other hand, mature wheat goes through a time of separation or crushing/threshing. Using a tribulum, a wooden board with holes in it, or using a wooden sled, both of which oxen often pull, threshers stand or sit on the board or sled as it is drawn over the grain that is laying on the threshing floor, causing the grain to be separated from the husk (chaff) and straw.

Because barley and wheat still will have certain amounts of chaff, little stones, and/or some tares mixed in them, these grains must go through an additional time of separation or sifting (sieving). The sifters sit on the floor and shake the sieve, which contains the grain, until the chaff begins to appear on the top. Then the sifters blow away the chaff by using the power from their breath. Shifting, thus, is necessary before the grain can be ground into meal.

Lastly, the mature grapes also go through a time of separation or crushing (treading). Using a winepress, treaders crush the grapes until the grapes’ juice is separated from the grapes’ skins, which results in the pressed juice running into the vats.

Having said that, here, in a nutshell, are the three main spiritual Harvests of Souls:

FIRST HARVEST — BARLEY HARVEST (@FIRST FRUITS FEAST)

See ~ Ephesians 5:27; ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:23, NCV; ~ 2 Peter 3:14, NCV

The Barley Harvest represents the overcomers. These are the saints whose hearts are tender—the repentant on-fire believers, whose body, soul and spirit are without spot or blemish; completely sanctified unleavened lives driven by the Wind of the Holy Spirit. Like Christ Jesus, they too are Firstfruits; they are the Bride of Christ; they are the redeemed, resurrected, never-to-die again, glorified sons and daughters of God, and they are the FIRST PHASE of the spiritual Harvest of Souls who participate in the 1^st resurrection. Furthermore, some of them will be the resurrected dead in Christ AND some will be the raptured alive in Christ (see 1 Corinthians 15:51- 54; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

More important, these overcomers have been winnowed, which means they did not need to be harvested by using a “TRIBULUM” (Latin word from which comes the English word, Tribulation). In other words, the Barley Harvest of Souls will NOT have to go through the seven-year TRIBULATION, of which the last 3½ years are going to be the time of great distress and great pressure that this world has never seen before, and will never see again.

SECOND HARVEST — WHEAT HARVEST (@FEAST OF PENTECOST)

See ~ Matthew 3:11-12; ~ Matthew 13:38-39; ~ Revelation 14:14-16, NCV

The Wheat Harvest represents all the rest of the believers—the left behind hardhearted and/or carnal believers who were not ready when the Bride of Christ was raptured. These believers must endure the seven-year Tribulation, and for them the Great Tribulation (the last 3½ years) is a judgment that can be compared to the most severe action of Wheat threshing that is done in order to make the Wheat easier to separate (easier to winnow) away from the chaff. The Wheat Harvest, thus, represents those believers who are asleep, in the spiritual sense (see Matthew 13:25). Furthermore, the Firstfruits of this Wheat Harvest will be the martyred (beheaded) saints who are the SECOND PHASE of the spiritual Harvest of Souls who participate in the 1^st resurrection, and the remaining mature Wheat will be those surviving Tribulation saints—the left-behind believers who have been thoroughly purged; see Revelation 7:13-14).

Also mixed in with this left-behind Harvest of Wheat are many left behind evangelized unbelievers (Jews and Gentiles) who, during the seven-year Tribulation, finally will accept Jesus the Christ as their personal Savior! Together with the surviving Tribulation’s left-behind believers, these Tribulation converts will be those Tribulation survivors biblically described as “…a great multitude, which no man could number…” (Revelation 7:9).

THIRD HARVEST — GRAPES HARVEST (@FEAST OF TABERNACLES)

See ~ Revelation 14:17-20; ~ Revelation 19:15

The Grapes Harvest represents the unbelievers who, for the most part, will be part of the massive crop of unbelievers who are in the 2^nd resurrection—those centuries of unbelievers who will be judged according to their works (see Revelation 20:11-13). Moreover, many of these Grapes are Tribulation unbelievers who have heard the Gospel but made a choice to not make the Gospel a part of their lives—they chose not to accept Jesus the Christ as their Lord and personal Savior. These Grapes, thus, are the Tribulation’s unspiritual Harvest of Souls who have been thrown in the great winepress of God’s wrath, which thoroughly extracts juice (life) from “crushed” Grapes (see Revelation 14:19). Put differently, the Grapes and their seeds are UTTERLY and TOTALLY CRUSHED!

In contrast, the Firstfruits of the Grapes Harvest are the 144,000 last days’ redeemed unmarried translated/raptured Messianic Jews (see Revelation 14:3-4). These blameless, undefiled, and faithful followers of Jesus the Christ are the THIRD PHASE of the spiritual Harvest of Souls who participate in the 1^stresurrection, because just like the alive Bride of Christ these 144,000 saints will be raptured (redeemed or resurrected; raised up) alive!

Are you breathing? Then a word to the wise should be sufficient!!!

For detailed information, please read my blog entries: The Three Most Important Crops of Israel’s Seven Major Crops, and Jewish Menorah Mirrors 7 Feasts: Reflections Made On 2011’s Feast of Trumpets