Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Matthew 8:20
What does it take to dissuade someone from pursuit? A little hardship, a little persecution? Lack of a comfortable home?
Jesus said,
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.
Matthew 19:29
What you lose is only temporary, what you gain is worth it. It is Good News.
Now watch this doctrine of Balaam most carefully. Notice above all, that it is the deliberate maneuver of a corrupt clergy to bind the people to them, by leading the people deliberately into the sin of unbelief. The Nicolaitane doctrine was the corruption of the clergy as they sought political power amongst themselves, while Balaamism is the subjection of the people to their system of creed and worship in order to hold them. Now watch this carefully. What was it that bound the people to the nominal church and thereby destroyed them? It was the creeds and dogmas formed into church tenets. It was the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. They were not given the true food, the Word. They were given the food that came from idol worship, Babylonian paganism wrapped up in Christian terminology. And that very same spirit and doctrine is right amongst all Protestants and it is called DENOMINATION. Nicolaitanism is organization, humanizing the leadership of the church, and thereby deposing the Spirit. Balaamism is denominationalism which takes the church manual instead of the Bible. And right to this hour, many of God’s people are caught in the snare of denominationalism and God is crying to them, “Come out of her My people, lest ye be partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues.” You see they are ignorant. But if the rapture should take place at this moment, ignorance would be no court of appeal from the judgment of God for being in the wrong ranks.
William M. Branham, a prophet from 40’s and 50’s, wrote the above words towards the end of his book on the seven church ages.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”
John 18:36
Jesus said His Kingdom was not of this world, nor of this realm. It was the Kingdom of the Heavens. John 3:3-5 indicates that the Kingdom cannot be seen nor entered unless one is born again, born of the water and the Spirit.
Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Matthew 11:11
Somewhere, we have picked up some really heinous ideas and called them wisdom. Take John… He lived in the wilderness his whole life, fasting and praying, and preparing for Messiah. He was to be the messenger, and he was to prepare the way for Jesus, so through him, all the world might be saved. This was his mission, his job, and he knew it. He knew it so well, that when Jesus’ “ministry” started to outshine his own, he didn’t even care.
Luke 16:16
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
Music from “Ancient Cry” by Chris Harvey (www.chrisharvey.org).
Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
