God Will Not Be Mocked - Message 3

Gal 6:7 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.

The mark of the beast revealed

As always I want to start out emphasizing how God wants His creation to see the full depth of His love for us, but since most people (including most believers) are so emerged in loving themselves, they can’t see or even understand God’s agape love that He has for us. These people are still filled and consumed by their own selfishness and that is the subject of this message.

God’s Word teaches us that there will be a time when most people will be deceived and will receive the mark of the beast, which is “666” on their hand and/or forehead. I want to inform you that we are and have been living in that time already. Most people have already received this mark of the beast and don’t even realize it.

In order to understand this mark of the beast and what it actually is, we must first come to a basic understanding of the “Things of God” and the “things of the devil”. These “Things of God” are in a specific order (ordered by God) and are numbered and always have to be used when we try to figure out all of the numbers in the symbolic scriptures of God’s Word. I would like to share more about the fuller meanings of God’s number system (the Things of God), but for now we are only going to concentrate on one “Thing of God” which is SELFLESSNESS and “one thing of the devil” which is SELFISHNESS. Below are the “Things of God” and the devils corresponding opposites which are the “things of the devil”.

Things of God
#1 – Longsuffering (patient)
#2 – Mercy (leniency or compassion)
#3 – Contentment (satisfied)
#4 – Humility (willing to be humbled)
#5 – Gentleness (kindness to others)
#6 - Selflessness (thinking of others first)
#7 – Peace (state of harmony)
#8 – Goodness (moral excellence)
#9 – Joy (great delight and rejoicing)
#10 – Forbearance (self control thru faith)
#11 – Hope (hope of winning thru grace)
#12 – Love (Perfection of all Things)

Things of the devil
#1 – Instant gratification
#2 – No leniency or compassion
#3 – Never satisfied
#4 – Prideful (unwilling to be humbled)
#5 – No kindness shown to others
#6 – Selfishness (thinking of self only)
#7 – No harmony with self or others
#8 – Totally unmoral values
#9 – Draining of any delight or rejoice
#10 – No faith or control over one’s self
#11 – No hope of winning or finishing
#12 – Hate of all good things

Notice above that #6 in the “Things of God” represents “Selflessness” and #6 in the “things of the devil” represents “Selfishness”. So when we talk about the beast’s mark, we are then talking in the realm of the “things of the devil”, since the beast represents the evil or the devils spiritual realm. We can now understand from this that the number “666” represents the forms (or realms) of selfishness since all the numbers in the number of the beast contain all 6’s. But how do these numbers go together or add up?

To understand how these three 6’s combine or go together we must now look at the makeup of the spiritual realm of God and the corresponding opposite spiritual realm of the devil. Below are the two spiritual realms.

God’s spiritual realm
Blood – Physical flesh realm
Water – Loving heart of man
Spirit - Heavenly spirit in man
Glory – Kingdom of God

devil's spiritual realm
Blood – Physical flesh realm
Water – Evil heart of man
Spirit – Evil spirit in man
Babylon – devil’s kingdom

You will notice from the above listings that God’s spiritual kingdom and the devil’s spiritual kingdom both contain the “Blood – Physical flesh realm”. This is where these two spiritual realms meet. These two spiritual realms meet in the fleshly realm which is why the spiritual warfare is fought out beginning within the flesh realm. After or underneath the “Blood – Physical flesh realm”, you will notice that these other spiritual realms are opposites of each other when you compare God’s spiritual realms with the devil’s spiritual realms.

Number place holder
Blood – x1 (ones place)
Water – x10 (tens place)
Spirit – x100 (hundreds place)
Glory/Babylon – x1000 (thousands place)

Now I want you to take a close look at the number place holder column. Each one of these opposing spiritual realms has a corresponding number place holder for God’s spiritual numbering system. For example: the “Water” realm of both opposing spiritual realms share the number place holder of “x10 (the tens place holder)” and this number place holder represents a spiritual realm of either a spiritual realm of God or a spiritual realm of the devil. The spiritual realm to be used (God’s or the devil’s) is determined by the context of God’s Word from where the scripture is being taken from.

Anyone that understands what I have stated above can now interpret what the number “666” really means and in turn understand what the mark of the beast really is.

6 = x1 (ones place holder) = A selfish fleshly body
+60 = x10 (tens place holder) = A heart filled with selfishness
+600 = x100 (hundreds place holder) = A spirit filled with selfishness
------
666 = A person filled with selfishness in their body, heart, and spirit


The mark of the beast is a spiritual mark and not a physical mark. The mark of the beast represents any person controlled by total selfishness (sinful nature). These selfish souls belong to the devil. God’s Word says the mark of the beast “666” will be on the hand or forehead. Again this mark represents a person filled with total selfishness and isn’t a visible mark on the hand or forehead. God’s Word says it is on the forehead because this represents our brain and what we think. God’s Word also says it can be on our hand because this represents our works that we do with our hands. A person that has the mark of the beast will think selfishly and all his/her works with also be selfish.

I want to inform everybody that has ears to hear, that the devil’s evil beast has been given authority to deceive the nations, even the believers.

Rev 13:14 - Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth.

In the past and for many hundreds of years, the devil’s deceptions had been restricted by God to let His church grow without undo influence by the devil, but now the devil has been allowed to deceive all the people of all the nations. These deceptions of the devil have been going on already for many, many years. God is not surprised by the world being taken over by the devil and his evil forces. God is allowing it to happen. God has authorized all of this evil for the testing of souls and to bring His plan to completion. God is allowing the devil to deceive who ever will be deceived in order to weed the weeds out of His harvest.

Rev 22:11-13 - Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy." "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Gal 6:7-9 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

God’s judgment is coming soon to everyone. God is allowing this evil to go on for a time, but this time of evil will come to an end. But before this time of trial and testing ends, it will get much worse. Get ready and then stay ready until Christ’s return. Evaluate yourself and let God search your soul. Are you sealed with His mark of Love (#12 – Love – God’s perfection) or are you marked by the devil with his mark of “666”. Selfishness can be overcome, but only by God’s grace through His Son (Christ Jesus) by the power of God’s love.

Your servant in Christ – Michael Reid

Who Are We Repenting For

Are we repenting for us or are we repenting for God? Are we repenting out of love for ourselves or out of love for God?

What does repenting mean? When we repent, we are sorrowful of our sin(s) and turn from our acts of sin that come from our selfish nature and at the same time turn to God in total obedience to eradicate those sins by the power of His Spirit.

There is mainly two ways in which we repent. One is out of a selfish fear and the other is out of the love we have for our Father in heaven. Almost all people come to God initially out of frustration and fear for themselves. They come to a breaking point where they realize their sins and have no way of healing themselves. They also come to believe that if they continue in these sins, they will go to hell instead of heaven. When God calls these people, most people come to God out of desperation. This desperation is motivated out of a fear of God and a fear for themselves. Fear is a big motivator and even though fear is not from the Lord, but from our own selfishness, God will use it to fulfill His purposes.

Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge

So how do we repent in a way most pleasing to God? This is where most people run into trouble. Most of this message will concentrate on repenting in a way that is most pleasing to God. We must remember when it comes to righteousness, there is only one way to do things, and that is God’s way.

What is the right way to repent after our initial coming to the Lord? To find out let’s dig a little deeper. Sin can only come from selfishness and pride and cannot come out of love. Every time we sin, we are acting out of our own selfishness or pride and we cannot be loving God or others. Jesus came to conquer all sin in believers. What was the main weapon He sent through the Holy Spirit to do this? Love - pure love. When we are born again, God gives us a new heart. God does this by removing the sinful selfish nature and replacing it with His love. Since sin cannot come out of a heart filled with love, the sinful nature is eradicated with the over powering love of God.

So, should we repent because we want to be saved or continue in our salvation state, or do we repent because we love God? There is a big difference and what way is acceptable to God after our justification experience. To help us understand, I want to look at the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible.

When the prodigal son came to himself and started the journey back to his fathers land, this represented the initial turning back to his father out of fear for himself. He had run out of his inheritance money and was hungry. He knew there was plenty of food back at his father’s home. (This was the motivating fear for self preservation). But he also wanted to return to be under his fathers love and protection again. (This was the wanting to be saved from his worldly life). This fear of self preservation and wanting to be saved from himself drove him to be humbled and willing to be one of his father’s servants. This initial repentance was all about the prodigal son benefit and not about the father. This repentance was still all generated out of love and fear for himself.

After the son returned to his father and the father loved him and accepted him fully back into the family. Do you think that son continued repenting out of fear for himself, or out of love for his father? After we come to our Father through Jesus Christ and realize the love He showed and shows us, do we continue in our repenting and try to be obedient to God commandments so He won’t throw us back from where we came, or do we repent and be obedient to His will because we want to please Him alone in everything we do. We might initially repent from fear, but our repenting should not continue out of fear, it should continue out of love for our Father.

When our reason for repenting is to hopefully be good enough to stay saved, we are trying to turn from our sin out of our own selfishness. When we repent in this way, we are still trying to save ourselves.

Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it

When we repent because we think we might not have eternal life if we don’t, we are still only repenting out of our own selfishness and fear. Since this kind of repenting is self centered, you are actually sinning while you are trying to repent. Also, unless you repent in a way pleasing to God, which is out of love for the Father, the turning from the sin will not usually take hold and you will find yourself repenting over and over for the same sins.

So what does repenting out of love look like? Remember repenting is turning away from the sin and turning to God. When we repent out of selfishness in order to try to save ourselves, we are trying to abstain from sin, but not turning to God. We must turn to God at the same time or else it won’t work.

What does turning to God mean? It is all about growing in love with God.

James 4:8 - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

When we are self centered we only love ourselves. You know, just like the devil loved only himself. This is maybe how we start out with God, but it can’t be how we stay in relationship with God. After justification we start being sanctified if we let God’s Spirit work in our lives. Sanctification is a process of becoming holy as God is holy. Almost all of us have to go through this process. The key to understanding sanctification is that it is not really a process of getting rid of our sins; it is a process in which we are transferring our love from ourselves to loving God only. In doing this we end up giving our whole life over to him.

Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

John 14:24 - He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

The key to repenting is repenting out of love for God and His glory; it has nothing to do with us. It is all about Him. When we repent out of love for our Father in Heaven, we want to repent of all our sins because we want to truly please Him, not us. This is totally opposite to repenting for us. When we repent for us, we don’t want to repent, but we do it because we think we need to. When we repent out of love, it is like my son being obedient to me because he loves me, not because he fears me. When my son is obedient out of love, he is obedient because he wants to be obedient. If my son is being obedient out of fear, he is not being obedient because he wants to; he is being obedient because of the consequences he might receive if he isn’t obedient. If the obedience is out of fear, he will quit being obedient as soon as he is away from me.

John 14:15 - If you love Me, keep My commandments.

So start loving God by getting to know Him through His word and Spirit. If you are trying to save yourself, STOP IT. Repent out of love for our Father in heaven and for His Glory.

God Bless,
Mike Reid