Our Lord iesus received the Holy Spirit from God

Passage of the Day

23 Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
John 14:23 – 24  World English Bible

23 This Jesus, God has raised to life -- a fact to which all of us testify.
33 'Being therefore lifted high by the mighty hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out this which you see and hear.
34 For David did not ascend into Heaven, but he says himself, ''The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand
35 until I make thy foes a footstool under thy feet.'
36 'Therefore let the whole House of Israel know beyond all doubt that God has made Him both LORD and CHRIST--this Jesus whom you crucified.'
Acts 2:32 – 36  Weymouth New Testament

We read from Acts chapter 2 the words of the Apostle Peter, speaking to the huge crowd of Jews from every part of the world (Acts 2:5, 9,10 WNT) telling them that God has raised "this Iesus" to life and that Iesus has received the promised Holy Spirit from God.

Particularly, in verse 33, Peter said that Iesus has poured out the Holy Spirit on all the 120 disciples together with him in the upper room on that Pentecost Day (Acts 1:15). As a result of that outpouring of the Spirit, the disciples spoke in various foreign languages — "which you see and hear" (Acts 2:33b) — a confirmation of the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Iesus, like the Peter and the 120 believers in the upper room, let us also be full of the Holy Spirit. Let us walk in the Spirit as we also live in the Spirit. And let us seek the confirmation "which you see and hear" from the Lord.

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I wrote two blog posts on my devotional blog in 2013 about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit — oon the Jews in Jerusalem and on the Gentiles in Caesarea. And again last year, I wrote related observations in another two blog posts, all links below :

• The Promise that is for you, for your children and for all afar (May2013)
• So I knew (Sep2013)
• The Day of Shavuot (Feb2022)
• The day of outpouring of the Spirit upon the Gentiles (Feb2022)

The Son of Man must be lifted up

Passage of the Day

13 There is no one who has gone up to Heaven, but there is One who has come down from Heaven, namely the Son of Man whose home is in Heaven.
14 And just as Moses lifted high the serpent in the Desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 in order that every one who trusts in Him may have the Life of the Ages.
John 3:13 – 15  Weymouth New Testament

5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Jeremiah 23:5 – 6  King James Version

15 “In those days and at that time,
I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David.
He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
16 In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell safely.
This is the name by which she will be called:
The LORD our righteousness.”
Jeremiah 33:15 – 16  World English Bible

Brothers and Sisters our Lord Iesus is the promised righteous Branch, the King who shall reign and execute judgment and justice on earth. He is called "YHWH our Righteousness".

The Lord told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that He had come down from Heaven, that His home is in Heaven, and that just as Moses lifted up the brass serpent on a pole in the wilderness so that the children of Israel who looked up at the serpent could be saved from their snake bites, our Lord Iesus "the Son of Man" must also be lifted up (meaning to be crucified) so that all who put their trust in Him may be saved from sin and have everlasting life.

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Over the last nine years, I have written my thoughts and observations about the expression "to be lifted up", as used by our Lord Iesus in the Gospels, in several blog posts, links below:

• I am He (Feb2023)
• If I am lifted up (Nov2022)
• Lift Jesus higher? (Mar2014)

In His Name the Gentiles will hope

1The LORD says,
“Here is my servant, whom I strengthen —
the one I have chosen, with whom I am pleased.
I have filled him with my Spirit,
and he will bring justice to every nation.
2He will not shout or raise his voice
or make loud speeches in the streets.
3He will not break off a bent reed
or put out a flickering lamp.
He will bring lasting justice to all.
4He will not lose hope or courage;
he will establish justice on the earth.
Distant lands eagerly wait for his teaching.”

5God created the heavens and stretched them out;
he fashioned the earth and all that lives there;
he gave life and breath to all its people.
And now the LORD God says to his servant,
6“I, the LORD, have called you and given you power
to see that justice is done on earth.
Through you I will make a covenant with all peoples;
through you I will bring light to the nations.
7You will open the eyes of the blind
and set free those who sit in dark prisons.
Isaiah 42:1 – 4; 5 – 7  Good News Bible

1 Jacob is *my servant, I will help him: Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor shall his voice be heard without. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench; but he shall bring forth judgment to truth. 4 He shall shine out, and shall not be †discouraged, until he have set judgment on the earth: and in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Esaias 42: 1 – 4  Septuagint Brenton

15 Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,
16 and charged them that they should not make him known:
17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,
18 'Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him,
He will declare judgment to the Gentiles.
19 He will not strive, nor shout; Neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
20 He won't break a bruised reed, He won't quench a smoking flax, Until he sends forth judgment to victory.
21 In his name, the Gentiles will hope.'
Matthew 12:15 – 21  World English Bible

A long time ago, the prophet Isaiah had prophesied that the Anointed One, the Servant of God, will be filled with the Spirit of God and will come to bring justice to all Gentile nations.

In the LXX, Isaiah (Esaias) 42:4b records Isaiah's prophecy, " . . . in his name shall the Gentiles trust".

This is quoted in Matthew 12:21, "in his name, the Gentiles will hope".

Brothers and Sisters in the Anointed One, let us always put our trust and hope in Iesus our Lord, the Anointed One of God.

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Back in 2013, I wrote my thoughts, based on the prophecy of Amos 9:11,12 quoted in Acts chapter 15, in a post entitled, "Gentiles who bear the Name of Yehovah" (link below).

In February last year, I wrote another two posts, one about how the Holy Spirit was first poured on the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius the Centurion in the city of Caesarea, and another about God waiting until the full number of Gentiles come into His Kingdom before the children of Israel is saved (all links below).

• Gentiles who bear the Name of God (Nov2013)
• Outpouring of the Spirit upon Gentiles (Feb2022)
• Until the fulness of Gentiles come (Feb2022)
• Gentiles called by God (Dec2022)

Understanding the fear of the LORD

This morning's passage brings to me a truth that I have missed through my 47 years of belief in the Lord Iesus the Anointed. This truth is found in the first five verses of Proverbs chapter 2, shown below:

1My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:1 – 5  Good News Bible

I have often heard people quote the verse that says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom . . ." (Proverbs 9:10). This verse makes me ask myself what the fear of the LORD means in my life.

This morning's passage answers my question by telling another side of this truth about the fear of the LORD — that if I seek wisdom from God, seeking it like silver, searching for it like for hidden treasures, virtually calling out and raising my voice for insight and for understanding, then I will understand the fear of the LORD.

Brothers and Sisters in Iesus the Anointed One, do you want to understand the fear of the LORD? Do you wish to find the knowledge of God? I urge you to seek wisdom and understanding from God. Seek wisdom. Search for it as for hidden treasure. Then you will understand the fear of the LORD.

Why was Jacob loved, and Esau hated?

Why was Jacob loved and Esau hated?

I first wrote these notes four years ago, on 18 August 2019 14:45 hrs GMT+8.

Today, I have decided to post them here as part of my devotional blog collection.

The following are references that I have gleaned from the books of Genesis and Numbers, as well as from some of the books of the Prophets, that I have grouped under two headings:

1. Notes about Jacob's obedience to his father Isaac, in remembering YeHoVaH.
2. Notes about Esau's disobedience to his father Isaac, in turning away from YeHoVaH

Jacob obeyed his father and remembered YHWH

Genesis 27:46
Jacob obeyed his father Isaac by going to Laban's house in Mesopotamia to marry one of Laban's daughters.

Genesis 28:20-22 (First visit to Bethel)
Jacob set up and dedicated a memorial stone at Bethel to YHWH and promised to take YHWH as his God if he returns safely from Mesopotamia.

Genesis 32:10-12 (cf Genesis 28:14)
Jacob crossed the River Jordan with only a walking stick but eventually returned from Laban's household with two large families. He remembered the promises of YHWH.

Genesis 33: 10-11
Jacob reconciled with Esau and did his best to regain Esau's favour.

Genesis 33:16,17
After Esau had returned to Edom, Jacob went on to Sukkot (lit. booths), where he built a booth (sukkah) for himself and for his cattle. He arrived safely in Shechem, bought a field from the descendants of Hamor for 100 silver, set up an altar and named it after El - the God of Israel.

Genesis 35: 1-4, 7 (Second visit to Bethel)
At the command of Elohim (v.7), Jacob returned to Bethel, built an altar there and told his family to remove all foreign Gods and purify themselves before going)

Genesis 35:14 (Third visit to Bethel?)
Jacob set up another memorial stone again at Bethel.

Esau disobeyed his father and turned away from YHWH

Genesis 25: 27-34
Esau sold his birthright, with a vow, in return for a mere bowl of lentils. He despised what YHWH has ordained for him.

Genesis 26: 34-35, 27:46
Esau married Hittite wives and became a heartache to his mother.

Numbers 20:14-21
His descendants - EDOM - refused safe passage to Israel who were sojourning in the wilderness on their way to Kadesh.

Amos 1:11-12
The Edomites sinned repeatedly and hunted down their Israelite brothers, showing no mercy, unrelenting and unlimited anger. God will destroy city of Teman and the fortress of Bozrah.

Isaiah 34:5-17
YHWH will strike Edom and destroy them with his sword, likened to a great sacrifice at the city of Bozrah - to rescue Zion and to take vengeance on her enemies. V.11 tells us that its land will be barren wasteland again like before creation!

Isaiah 63:1-6
YHWH will come dressed in red, in power and strength, trampling the Nations like one who tramples grapes - from Bozrah - to save His people and to punish His enemies.

Jeremiah 49: 7-22
Again, Bozrah city will become a horrifying sight, a desert, a permanent ruin at which all will shake their heads, comparable to Sodom and Gomorrah. Likewise the city of Teman (v.20)

Ezekiel 25:12-14
Edom had been cruel to Israel. Their guilt endures. Israel will take revenge on Edom - from Teman to Dedan. Edom will feel the fury of YHWH

(Note: Edom is located in a high mountainous area.)

Ezekiel 35: 1-5
Adonai YHWH declares himself an enemy of Edom. He will make Edom (on the mountains of Seir) a desolate wasteland and because Edom was Israel's constant enemy, they will pay for their anger, jealosy and hatred towards Israel.

Obadiah 1 - 14
YHWH will pull Edom down from its high mountain fortress. Teman will be terrified. v.15 - Edom will receive retribution for what she has done, a bitter cup of punishment.

Malachi 1: 2-5
Edom's attempts at rebuilding their towns will be futile. She has become a nation with whom YHWH is angry forever.

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Brothers and Sisters, let us remember the example of Jacob and be warned not to follow the footsteps of Esau and his descendants Edom.

Malachi 2: 1,2
This command is for you: you must honour Me (My Name) by what you do.

Beneath the facade of Artificial Intelligence

The article linked below talks about researchers successfully inventing a liquid metal robot that can shapeshift like a Terminator:

A liquid metal robot that can shapeshift like a terminator, 28Jan23.

Software and robotics engineers are making rapid progress in artificial Intelligence.

Soon, AI stuff like ChatGPT will become child's play.

Here's my two cents worth of opinion on the recent emergence of artificial intelligence on the Internet:

From electronic calculators to supermarket point-of-sale terminals to utility bills, from bar codes to Quick Response codes, from e-banking to e-wallets, we have steadily "surrendered" the task of checking and counting to computer systems.

We trust the computer to be correct all the time, as long as the input data has been keyed or scanned in correctly.

Few realise that such trust can be misplaced when we depend on sophisticated software systems like google search, for instance, to look for answers to questions, for general knowledge and for links to websites.

It is no longer a matter of computation or calculations.

Instead, the people who control the search engine can control what we see and what we don't see. They can conceal some inconvenient truths or hide some historical facts if they want to, perhaps at the behest of a powerful "deep state".

Recently, AI has made another leap forward in providing, and also controlling, answers to our questions.

Instead of being a search engine that merely displays a list of stuff for us to browse through, AI robots like chatGPT responds to our questions (called prompts) by replying us in complete and articulate sentences composed into a coherent passage.

In other words, it combines information from multiple sources, including language and even local culture (I have seen examples of chatgpt replying in malaysian slang) when responding to our prompts.

In doing so, this artificially intelligent robot seems to converse intelligently with us. Hence its name "chatbot".

Here is where our fascination should end, and our precaution should begin:

1. The organisations that produce chat robots can control what sources the chatbot includes and what it leaves out, i e. it can control what it wants us to read or learn. Imagine an entire generation of young people who take chatbots as the final authority in all areas of knowledge without question.
2. Chatbots will continue to advance rapidly, to reply our prompts with such flair and eloquence, with such persuasive statements and convincing arguments that we will gradually, even progressively lose our ability to think, to write and to articulate our thoughts. We will soon be surrendering yet another basic life-task to the computer.
3. AI users who steadily lose their ability to carry out basic tasks, will increasingly become more dependent on such robots.
4. Such chatbots will continue to evolve into "higher" forms e.g. a life-like robot who actually sits down and chats with you at Starbucks, or in a more undesirable way, a robot that can threaten you with harm and violence.

The shape shifting liquid metal robot described in the link at the beginning of this article is a precursor to more sinister AI stuff in years to come.

It may herald the fulfillment of some of the prophecies in the Book of Revelation e.g. the image of the Beast.

Brothers and Sisters in Jesus the Anointed One, let us be watchful. We are living in the last days.

NPY
20Feb23
17:55 hrs GMT+8

God our Father raised His Anointed Iesus from the dead

During my readings in the recent week, my attention is drawn to the words of the Apostles in the Book of Acts, reiterating their affirmation that God raised His Son Iesus from death.

I came away with the deep conviction that the Resurrection of Our Lord Iesus was the very act of God our Father in Heaven.

The Apostle Peter and the other Apostles told the High Priest and the Council in Acts 5:32 that they were witnesses of "these things" and that the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to all who obey Him, is also a witness too. See passages quoted below:

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22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
Acts 2:22 – 24  King James Version

This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Acts 2:32  King James Version

13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
Acts 3:13 - 15  King James Version

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Acts 4:10  KJV

30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Acts 5:30 - 32  KJV

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Between 2010 and 2013, I have written my observations and thoughts, in three separate blog posts, on the teaching that God raised His Anointed One from the dead. Links below

• Did the Messiah raise himself from the dead? (Jan2013)
• Implicit allusions vs Explicit Assertions (Dec2012)
• Reasons why you should not believe in the Trinity (Sep2010)