Shabbat shalom chaverim and welcome to the weekly assembly of Messianic Evangelicals here in Sweden. Today should have been the next part of our Book of Revelation series but two deaths in one week has completely thrown me for a loop and I just haven't had the strength to do the necessary preparation work, and to therefore do an expository sermon on so important and controversial a book of Scripture any sort of justice. Neither have I received a clear word on what I should talk to you today about as a substitute so I can do no more than throw my heart open to Yah'shua (Jesus) and trust the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to lead me to a davar (word) that is mutually edifying.

First permit me to 'get the deaths out of the way' since I happen to be the vessel of today's message and this vessel has been on an emotional rollercoaster for some days. First, on 6 September, we said farewell to our Yorkshire terrier Chloë of 14 years who was such a big part of our lives, the more so as she got older and more infirm and so needed much more personal attention. Then we said farewell two days later to the longest reigning monarch in history who was loved not just by the British and Commonwealth people by the whole world.

As believers we also want to know if we will be reunited with our pets in heaven one day - I have been asked this question many times over the years. My answer has always been a qualified 'yes' - not because our heart demands or expects a positive answer, but because it seems to me to be consistent with the love of Elohim (God). I could say that I have seen all our late pets in vision, which I have, and out of that I can testify that they are indeed alive in their spirits, though I have not yet seen Chloë. But people will rightly say that is subjective experience and we cannot base truth solely on the experiences of others. And they're right. Rather, we must have a common ground for belief, and that has to be the infallible Davar Elohim (Word of God), and that says quite clearly that "all flesh shall see the salvation of Elohim (God)" in Luke 3:6; and whilst, I suppose, that passage (which is in accord with Universal Reconciliation, by the way) might only refer to human beings (and is so rendered in a minority of dynamic-equivalent translations like the NEB, JNT, NLT & JB where 'flesh' is rendered 'mankind', 'men', 'people' or 'humankind'), all other translations leave the Greek and Aramaic as clearly stated, namely, 'flesh', in the Book of Revelation, where the scene is the Throne Room no less, we can go one better. After the great multitude of believers has born its witness, it declares:

"And every creature which is in the sky (heaven) and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: 'Blessing and honour and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!" (Rev.5:13, NKJV).

Trying to process all that is probably beyond our ken and I'm sure that some will argue that this is just a poetic expression and can't possibly include every 'nasty' beast like blood-thirsty sharks, deadly viruses, parasitic tapeworms, disease-bearing mosquitos and flies, grotesquely ugly deep sea anglers and man-eating crocodiles whom Africans in particular have to contend with in the country. Well, we can reason that way if we wish, but if you take that position you must also reckon with the other inhabitants of the Throne Room, from Yahweh Himself to the 24 Elders, the 4 Living Creatures, the 144,000 and great multitude to be 'merely poetical' too...which is absurd. Besides, we don't know what form all the currently 'nasty' creatures down here will take one day after the restoration of all things has taken place. Frankly I am bound to the thought that no imperfection can get anywhere near Yahweh's Throne Room and that therefore, after the New Creation of the Cosmos has taken place, everything will be restored to the way it was originally designed to be before the Fall, so whyatever a tapeworm is now, it won't be then. That's my two cents worth, to which I can add my own reinforcing experiences. So my answer is, yes, we shall indeed one day be reunited with all those we loved, whether people or animals. Since the Ruach (Spirit) goes to great lengths to specifically mention creatures in the sky, on the ground, under the ground, and in the sea, it looks pretty inclusive. All living things will be praising the Creator! And I have seen that in vision too!

I realise that my visions are personal and that there are those - especially cessationists - who are sceptical of contemporary revelation, visions, prophecy, etc., and who reserve judgment on such matters. That's fair enough. I can respect that. I've struggled with this myself given all the false manifestations we see around. If you'd like to go into greater scriptural depth on this subject, I will leave some links you can follow up on afterwards [1]. So there was the death of our dog, the little family funeral we had the day after, and then the day after that, Elizabeth II, Queen of England, died.

Whatever you may think of the British Royal Family, their failings, scandals, involvement with the occult, and the like, there is no doubt in my mind that it has at least been a stabilising influence especially in times of political turbulence. You can see how something like it would have been of enormous benefit to the United States today with all its political divisions. The Queen was crowned two years before I was born so in a way I have 'known' her all my life. As a keen amateur philatelist (stamp collector) she loomed large on the many postage stamps I collected a youth. Har face was on every letter I ever received or saw, on every bank note and on most coins I used. Her portrait hung in most homes. She has been a constant throughout all the upheavals of the 20th and 21st centuries, a professed Christian and (as far as I can tell) a decent woman who set an excellent example in respect of duty and responsibility. She was a unifying factor, stayed out of politics as monarchs are supposed to, even though she of course had her own opinions, and earned the love of all the classes and of the entire political spectrum, right and left, with the exception of a minority of communists and ultra-liberals who supposedly love humanity yet by their actions prove that they hate ordinary people. So, yes, her death was a great loss to me personally, without judging what else she and her family has got up to. Her life, unlike most royals, was scandal-free.

We have a new king in Britain, Charles III, who has not stayed out of politics and has publically aligned himself with the globalist élites and with the likes of Schwab et al whose schemes I can only condemn as being against the interests of the British people he must now represent. I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, and whilst I totally share his views about architecture, as far as I can tell that's about all we agree on. And though there has been talk of him no longer wanting to be called the 'Defender of the [Anglican] Faith' in his coronation covenant, I believe he was at least in word (even if not in his heart...but who am I to judge?) to uphold the British Protestant tradition. Not that I think that means anything anymore because the Church of England has sold its soul to the devil and is to all intents and purposes a postmodernist Marxist 'woke' institution with all its bishops (barring one or two) either being radically liberal (denying such cardinal truths as the incarnation, atonement and resurrection) or atheist.

Nearly all true and faithful high ranking believers have left the Anglican Church to become Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Evangelical. One of the Queen's own personal ministers recently became Catholic. There are some conservative groups within Anglicanism but they are already being infiltrated and spiritually neutered because they have been willing to compromise one or more biblical truths. It's a great tragedy because the Church of England has produced some wonderful people whose writingts in my later years I have come to rediscover and enjoy, including those of the minister of University College, Oxford, where I was a student. But as far as I am concerned, the death of Queen Elizabeth II was more than personal. It was, as it were, the 'final act', representing the symbolic end of my homeland which had been slowly dying ever since the end of the First World War, and which only accelerated after the end of the Second World War. The country I once knew is well and truly gone now. It is dead and that is very painful to have to admit because I can never return to it and find the society I once knew.

So in a way, I have attended three funerals this week, fulfilling (at least on one level) a prophetic vision I had some weeks ago which I have never shared with anyone until now, because only now do I better understand its meaning, unless the third death I was shown is yet to come. Yahweh showed me three coffins side by side lying in a bay window area. That is why I have not had the physical or emotional resources to give you the next part of our course on the Apocalypse today. I have simply been too sad, tired and unable to concentrate.

Everything changes in this life, nothing is static and I know you have heard me say that many times. Change is inevitable and we must learn to embrace it even if at times it has a sharp, cutting and wounding edge. I believe it was M. Scott Peck who once said that the human personality inherently resists change because it is an entrenched system or organisation of psychic elements. If a component element changes, then the whole system must change. And all systems resist change. Just as an individual person or personality is a system that resists change, so also, for instance, is a marriage a system with a personality of its own that tends to struggle against any alteration. The same is true of national institutions and even religious systems because some human beings seem to have this irresistable urge to tinker not only with that which needs changing but also with that which absolutely does not because it is already working fine. Schwab, Gates, Fauci, Epstein, Saville and all the other alleged life-forms out there want to discard democracy in the name of a new kind of corporate feudalism in which we will own nothing and be forced to eat artificial, reprocessed protein from insects and recycled sewage. So, yes, unadressed issues in organisational life, like neuroses in our individual psyches, become ghosts that invariably come back to haunt us if we don't address them. This is as true of nations as it is of families and churches. We are today at a very critical place indeed.

How do we tackle these neuroses? How can we tackle them in this confused day and age? The answer is the same in every age - Yahweh's way. It is the only way that can heal in any permanent sort of a way. Human solutions are but temporary band-aid solutions. Speaking of the nations, and as we shall later be addressing in greater detail in our Book of Revelation course (Yah willing), we understand that national redemption can only occur when each nation surrenders fully to Elohim (God):

"We give thanks to You, Yahweh-Elohim Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because You have taken Your great power
and have begun to reign.
The nations were angry;
and Your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding Your avadim (servants) the nevi'im (prophets)
and your qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) and those who reverence Your name,
both small and great -
and for destroying those who destroy the earth" (Rev.11:17-18, NIV).

Today, 11 September 2022, is national, regional and local Election Day in Sweden. I have been listening to all the vacuous, self-serving banter of the politicians for weeks now. They don't have a clue what they're doing, none of them, because they don't recognise the sovereignty of Yahweh or undersand what's really going on. Indeed, the parties here have all banded together, from the left and right, and agreed to write abortion into the very Constitution of the nation. That will bring even more curses on the nation! This was the reaction of the party leaderships and members of parliament to the overthrowing of Roe vs. Wade in the United States recently. It gets worse. In some countries here in Europe, as in some parts of the USA, they want to make abortion legal not only up to actual birth but for a period of time afterwards! When murder is enshrined in any nation's Constitution, let alone its laws, that nation is doomed because you know very well what spirit lies behind this. It is one thing to kill the unborn but when it becomes legal to kill the already born, then you know exactly where that will lead to. Next it will be the old and infirm (and indeed they are already being 'processed' in some countries without their consent) and that will develop into eliminating anyone who opposes whatever the current government or corporatist 'thing' is 'in the best interests of society' or of the persons themselves or some other devious slogan. That is the evil the nations are rushing headlong into now.

And what a bitter irony it is that the nations, who claim to be protecting the earth with their new idolatrous nature religion of 'climate change', are the ones Yahweh says are destroying the earth with chemicals and plans to block the sun and who will themselves be judged and destroyed! That's right, those who tamper with the Creation, whether it be with the genomes of living creatures or filling the asmosphere with noxious, carcinogenic and disease-causing compounds that are already killing off wildlife, are singled out for destruction! And to be fair, that would include greedy industrialists willing to poison the atmosphere and waterways with such things as heavy metals and radioactive substances [2].

Yesterday morning I took down my Union Jack which had been flying at half mast for the late Queen and for my country. I don't anticipate flying it again unless Britain wakes up. It would only take a reformist Monarch or (preferably) a Prime Minister with a heart like King Hezekiah to do so, a monarch like the previous King of Sweden whose motto, stamped on the back of each one crown coin in his day, read Plikten framför allt or 'Duty Before All Else' which was very much in the spirit of our late Queen Elizabeth too. Of course, there is always the possibility of misguided loyalty to, and duty towards, a criminal régime as occurred in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia in the last century, and both the Swedish King and Britsh Queen had duty to Elohim (God) first and foremost. Sadly, the Swedish State Church has gone exactly the same way as the English one. As believers, our duty is first of all to Elohim (God), then to family, and then to nation. Today, as in past totalitarian systems, the reverse is proclaimed. Today we are expected to worship the state.

As I said, I have been reading the posters and brochures and listening to video broadcasts of Sweden's many political parties these last weeks, often involuntarily as their ads have kept appearing in YouTube videos I have been watching. There's a lot of virtue-signaling and precious little substance. I tactically voted locally this year but I see no point voting in the future, especially as there is in reality nothing substantially to choose between and more so if they amend the constitution. It's the same with the British political parties - they are all cut from essentially the same bolt of cloth, the labels they use being essentially meaningless - the Labour Party no longer cares about the working class and the Conservatives aren't conservative but social democrat!

For Christians and Messianics, this is a hard world to navigate currently. I know you want an optimistic message which I shall certainly give you even if it isn't necessarily the one you may be expecting. There are many, confronted with the alarming realities of the political and social life in the nations today, who are praying for increased faith. I would like to suggest to you, though, that it is useless praying for increased faith until you have fulfilled the conditions of faith by taking Yahweh at His word. It is written:

"Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have emunah (faith) in Yahweh your Elohim (God) and you will be upheld; have emunah (faith) in His nevi'im (prophets) and you will be successful'. After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to Yahweh and to praise Him for the splendour of His holiness as they went out..., saying: 'Give thanks to Yahweh, for his ahavah (love) endures forever'" (2 Chron.20:20-21, NIV).

Likewise, to repond to the Saviour's call to "follow Me" (Lk.9:59) means to practice walking in His footsteps, which were marked by humility, Torah-obedience, forgiveness and love. Weariness will overtake you on the smoother road, if it is not the pathway Yahweh has chosen for you. Follow the path mapped out in Scripture, there is none other safe for you or your family, and certainly not for your country. In this time of national elections in Sweden (and soon there will be the mid-terms in America), with coup d'états brewing beneath the surface, recall and remember the wise words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

"The line separating good and evil passes not through states (nations), nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart."

The nazis demonised the Jews, the Stalinists the bourgouisie, today's élites Russia and white heterosexual conservative Christian males. These lines of division and separation and drawn all wrong because they are demonically inspired. The only divisions that matter are of the heart - of character. That is the only way to separate evil out from the good.

Therefore it is your heart above everything else that you must guard. Our personal lives, the lives of our families and of our nations, and even civilisations such as the European one we live in here in Sweden, or the American one in the New World, as Toynbee once said, they "don't die from being murdered; they die from being suicided". The 'woke' revolution has suicided the Church of England, the Lutheran Churches here in Scandinavia, and indeed churches everywhere that promote self rather than Christ, because, in the words of Cameron Benthel, "when you elevate man, you lower the cross"; and when you lower the cross by denying the Messiah, you are dooming yourself to an eternal oblivion.

Yah'shua (Jesus) so warned Peter:

"Simon, Simon, take heed: Satan has been given leave to sift all of you like wheat; but for you, I have prayed that your faith may not fail; and when you have come to yourself (to your senses), you must strengthen your brothers" (Lk.22:31-32, NEB).

We're in heart of the Penultimate Judgment right now and our faith is being tested. I know some of you are depressed and some are desperate because you cannot see Yahweh answering their prayers as crisis mounts upon crisis. But some of you are looking for deliverance in the wrong place, even if it's just from your own personal resources. If you're doing that - trying to save yourself - please carefully consider your course of action. Tribulation has a way of bringing most to their senses, like Kefa or Simon Peter, though not all. It's going to get even uglier very soon and then you will soon discover what you are made of:

Mo man is free when freedom fails,
When the best men rot in filthy jails,
Whilst those who cry, 'Appease, appease!'
Are hung by those they try to please.

And also remember the wisdom of Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military strategist, who said that all confrontations are won before the battle begins. The choices you made before the Collapse will determine how you will fare in it when it arrives, as it is now doing. So long as you have a right mind and a right heart, you will be prepared for whatever comes, however unexpected. And confrontations are coming, we cannot wholly avoid them, though we can certainly minismise their impact and danger if we have taken heed to Yahweh's warnings to, amongst other things, prep and get out of the cities and to the places of safety He has ordained for us and our families. Whether this exodus is to be permanent or only only for a while remains to be seen and may well vary from individual to individual. Don't try to be smart and do it your way because there's a fine line between cowardice and cleverness. "Many are the plans in a man's heart," said Solomon, "but it is Yahweh's purpose that prevails" (Prov.19:21, NIV). So align your plans with His Plan and He promises that He will determine your steps and ensure they succeed (Prov.16:9).

Everything, as I said, is constantly changing...except, reassuringly, for Yahweh and His purposes! They are constant as He Himself has testified, saying, "I, Yahweh, do not change" (Mal.3:6, NIV). We must change because we are constantly growing and learning. But in order to learn effectively you have to be practicing at the edge of your ability, pushing beyond your comfort zone. You have to use a lot of concentration, methodically and repeadedly attempting things you aren't good at. It's just like learning a language - you have to keep at it, day after day, or you will start forgetting what you learned. Just consider all the skills you have - the things you are good at - and you will see that it was through consistent hard work and faith in the final outcome that took you to where you are and to success. Maintaining faith and salvation is no different which is why Scripture speaks of salvation past, present and future. Believers can, and do, fall away because they choose to stop cultivating their spiritual life and start willfully and habitually yielding to temptation, abandoning Yahweh's tavnith or pattern of living for the world's. If only it were as simple as the careless and lazy man's gospel of 'once saved, always saved' but it isn't.

If Yahweh is concerned enough to preserve every living creature that they are all prophetically depicted as being present in the Throne Room of Heaven, praising Him in a perfected or redeemed state; and if plants, trees and vegetation - and indeed all of nature - are doing the same too, then you may be sure that He is concerned about every microscopic detail of your life. According to Yah'shua (Jesus) He notes sparrows when they fall from the sky and numbers the hairs on your head at any one moment in time (Lk.12:7) - there is nothing casual or indifferent about Him. And if, as we know is true, the Great Restoration and Renewal at the very end of the æon (age) will include the whole Cosmos, from the tiniest quark or sub-atomic particle to the largest galaxy, you may be assured that He is interested in every question and struggle that you have too. He is the most 'involved' being there is. The fact that you are not hearing Him comment on every detail to you personally does not change that reality any more than a son or daughter is aware of just how much time their parents have their children on their minds and in their hearts until they themselves become parents.

Our dog Chloë departed at just the right moment as did Queen Elizabeth II. Yesterday I was watching all the complex royal protocol whereby the new King makes his public proclamation. There is continuity in the Creation at every level too. Stars are being born and dying every moment just as human beings and dogs are. For us, who are so small compared to Creation as a whole, and whose time on earth seems but like a vapour (Jas.4:14) - here one minute and gone the next in a single cosmic blink - it can be overwhelming to think on such things. But whether we are on earth or in the spiritual world, life goes on and things are being worked out.

Indeed only the other day I saw my mother in vision for the first time in many years since her passing - her head was bowed and she was in deep, deep thought. The business of reconciliation with Yahweh goes on and sometimes it can be a very long drawn-out process, stretching into centuries as we understand it, because in the world of spirits things take a lot longer than here on earth where we are blessed with sharp contrasts to aid our discernment. For my mother, who would be 108 were she still alive today, things must still be worked out, until all realise and accept the need for a Saviour. Again, I repeat, Yahweh does not neglect a single person in His Creation because each was, and is, a specially crafted being. You are never alone. Ever.

To every single creature, He makes an invitation to receive His grace, His undeserved loving-kindness:

"All you who are thirsty, come to the water. You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat; Come, buy grain without money, wine and milk without cost. Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what does not satisfy? Only listen to Me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Pay attention and come to Me; listen, that you may have life. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the steadfast loyalty promised to David. As I made him a witness to peoples, a leader and commander of peoples, so shall you summon a nation you knew not, and a nation that knew you not shall run to you, because of Yahweh, your Elohim (God), the Qadosh (Holy, Set-Apart) One of Israel, who has glorified you.

"Seek Yahweh while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their way, and sinners their [sinful] thoughts; let then turn to Yahweh to find mercy; to our Elohim (God), who is generous in forgiving. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways...For as the heavens (skies) are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, My thoughts higher than your thoughts.

"Yet just as from the heavens (skies) the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall My Davar (Word) be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but shall do what pleases Me, achieving the end for which I sent it. Yes, in simcha (joy) you shall go forth, in shalom (peace) you shall be brought home; mountains and hills shall break out in song before you, all trees of the field shall clap their hands. In place of the thornbush, the cypress will grow, instead of nettles, the myrtle. This shall be to Yahweh's renoun, an everlasting sign that shall not fail" (Is.55:1-13, RNAB [3]).

Is that not most beautiful and reassuring? And that is all we ever need to know about Yahweh's motives, it's all we ever need to know about His care and attention to detail and the reliability of Scripture. So we can be especially confident that His Davar or Word, the Bible, however ancient its formulation, however culturally different from our own ones in every succeeding generation, can be relied upon. Its truth is timeless, its principles simple and unsophisticated. That is why this book, the Bible, is one of the most precious resources you will ever own. Guard it diligently. Read it daily. And may you go out in shalom (peace) from this assembly and back out into our very troubled world, knowing that He cares about pet dogs and monarchs, quarks and the destiny of the whole Cosmos in equal measure. And though the story is by now a very old one, for you and I it is fresh and new each morning. I pray that you will have a very blessed Sabbath Day and spend quality time to contemplate on our amazing Heavenly Father. He is near. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] See Are There Animals in Heaven?, All Creatures of Our Elohim: Are Animals Resurrected? and Life After Death: Red Moon and a Pet Dog Returns
[2] Carbon dioxide is not a poison but a life-giving molecule required by plants to produce oxygen for animals
[3] Revised New American Bible (2012) - as with all translations cited here, the text has been cosmetically altered to reflect messianic terminology and a more accurate representation of the original text.

Comments from Readers

[1] "I really enjoyed this!" (WW, Sweden, 11 September 2022)