IN THE WILDERNESS
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (July 29, 2015)
"The Lord knowest how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished (2 Peter 2:9 King James Version [Temptation]).
Greetings In The Holy Name of Jesus,
My sisters and brothers, the battles in the wilderness, Satan's playground [Eve expected good out of the tree of good and evil but eating the fruit of good and evil was death for God is good.], one evil act-by-one evil act, whether subtly captivating and oppressive or overtly ensnaring and binding, are staggeringly painful to the hearts of man. Will you die for me are words that fall on deaf ears for many people yet many people do die for the causes and issues of other people, in the name of the one body in Christ Jesus. In rural southwestern Georgia, USA---my wilderness experience, my beloved pet named Faith answered the call and strongly fought with all she had: birthing pups, training, smarts and wit to survive until she died---was killed on Mother's Day 2015---because she was named Faith. That female dog---my sincere affection for her, was not to say I placed her before my love for humankind [advocacy for dogs] for I know my sons and my family love me but in the wilderness without them there God calls us and we do not know who is truly our loyal friend. However, I knew she died for me as the dogs and pups in her tribe of dogs died before her, answered the call---because Faith's loyalty and respect were the envy of the farms along the road---that was how she was trained to be loyal no matter what because Death and Satan were ever present in the wilderness in the midst of Christ dwelling right in the middle of that killing field---that road and that estate-at-large [I saw Faith in a vision---in spirit at the northwest corner of the farmhouse stepping in joy, polar opposite where the ancient snake came].
In the wilderness Christ Jesus teaches us in all those teachable moments best learned since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that casts light on the desert classroom. If it were not so, I would not tell you, in order to make it back to paradise, the suffering that cast Adam and Eve out of paradise to the desert is the same teaching experience in suffering that kept Israel 40 years in the wilderness before crossing over the Jordan River under blessings and curses and it is the same suffering that Jesus had to reverse the curse of when God led him back to the wilderness to spend 40 days and nights tempted by Satan three times: firstly, to turn stone to bread, secondly, to worship Satan to inherit the kingdom of God, and thirdly, to prove himself by jumping down from the mountain the temple in Jerusalem 400 feet to the ground. God does not tempt us. Why are we casting light on the classroom in the wilderness, today to further draw you closer to God than where you find yourselves today because it was that experience, that woman Eve, that man Adam, that God-man Christ Jesus, that Mary, that man Joseph, and those disciples that entered in to the wilderness experience of sufferings and brought us out pulled us over, to save us? The impact of the lost of light greatly effected God's family and the world so much so that God himself fought the battle to cast the serpent out of the casket where man was, in death [the Word of God brought to John the Baptist in the wilderness, Luke 3: 1-2, 4-6, KJV].
Moreover, as the word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness with the message of a repentant heart, Jesus endured the battle and fought Satan with the same Word of God in three temptations. Firstly, the devil said, "If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God." (Luke 4: 3-4, KJV). It is not new for Satan to use food to tempt Jesus [Jesus is the bread of life] because he tempted Eve with food [The fruit of the tree of good and evil was death.]---coming out of God's exhortation to Israel ["Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good", Psalms 107:1, KJV.] in Deuteronomy (8:3, KJV) to remember his tender mercy feeding them manna in the wilderness in the valley of Mount Sinai, for 40 years. As often as we can, we feed on the Word, Jesus is the Word of God and the members of Christ fast one hour [Jesus said "anoint thine head, and wash thy face; when you fast so people will not know you are fasting" St. Matthew 6: 17-18, KJV] before communion as Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days---we eat and drink in remembrance of Christ [our Eucharist experience] in communion when we eat the wafer, the body of Christ and when we drink the wine, the blood of Christ (Luke 4:1-2, KJV [Jesus hungered 40 days tempted of the devil in the wilderness]).
The miracle manna appeared on the battlefield in the wilderness to feed Israel during the 40 years as daily bread prayed for in Psalms saved them so they could birth children to cross over the Jordan River with Joshua. One day in the wilderness, I did not have the bread I needed to feed my fish as I used to do each day twice-a-day so I rested inside the house after a hard day of cutting down 100 feet trees and stacking them on a firepile for burning. I did not forget my responsibility to my fishes and thought what could I feed them when the spirit led me back outside and there I found a row of mushrooms perfectly planted with the same distance between them---the same size with the same brown coloring on the bottom---portobello mushrooms, I was so amazed I quickly picked them before the intensity of the sun's rays dried them out hardening them making them less of a delightful meal. I crunched them up and placed them in the tank of fish. I remember just a few days before the miracle mushrooms my cousin asked, "Where do mushrooms come from?" I did not answer but when they appeared perfectly planted in a row like I have never seen them before I knew Christ came and planted at my farm. (St. Matthew 28: 20, KJV ["Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."].
This would not be so, if Jesus left God as Satan did for we would not be saved, we would not be members of Christ Jesus, there would be no salvation plan with the gift of eternal life [My purpose is to give life in all its fullness---The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." St. John 10:10, KJV], and the snake would still be in the casket. Secondly, the devil said, "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Luke 4: 6-8, KJV). If it were not so, then why was Christ Jesus the fourth man in the fiery furnance with Shadrech, Meshach and Abednego when Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon sentenced them to death for refusing to bow down to the golden statute made in his image?
Thirdly, the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, "And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." (Luke 4: 9-12, KJV). Inasmuch as we are not prepared to do battle with the devil God said to resist Satan and he will flee for the inspired scripture of Psalm 91 told us God would raise us up on the wings of eagles ["Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with My victorious right hand" Isaiah 41: 10, KJV], there is no mystery why Satan did not quote inspired scripture correctly to say the angels were charged over Jesus to keep him in all his ways before he came into his inheritance before the crucifixion but after he died resurrected and ascended Jesus Christ was given all power for the power of God was never Satan's power. All knees must bow ["And.Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." St. Matthew 28:18, KJV].
Most importantly, why did the foreboding warning speak out to the world "Woe to the earth when Satan was cast out of heaven by Archangel Michael? What happened in heaven? God created Lucifer whose name means light bearer and morning star. One day Lucifer decided to say, I am he who all should worship. Lucifer's name was then changed to Satan a Hebrew name meaning to oppose, for Satan opposed God. To further describe Satan by his name, the Greek work Diabola meaning slanderer, is used, for Satan slandered God and took one-third of God's angels with him---making them fallen angels. However, the image of God did not change and the image of Christ Jesus did not change in the grave tomb but resurrected in three days and spent 40 days in fellowship on earth with man before ascending to heaven ["And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many" St. Matthew 27: 52-53, KJV].
With that understanding, let us clearly see that Satan transformed into a master deceiver, which was easily done for him since he was originally the light-bearer angel of God even so the morning star. He could disguise himself as good when he subtly convinced---persuaded and negotiated with man to oppose God, such as was the case and point of recent news in the world, in South Carolina, USA when the boy left safety to see about his pastor during the time the killer shot nine worshippers, including the pastor who sat next to the killer, the witness said of the boy getting shot "but he had to see about the pastor", clearly we see the evil here and the laughter of Satan. Eve was told, "He just doesn't want you to know good and evil." Did Satan care about the boy's safety or did he laugh at the child's lack of knowledge and lack of preparedness to face him knowing the obvious sacrifice of his own life to save his pastor---a Christ like act---a Savior's act was made as an innocent lamb led to the slaughter? Was the boy a David, a shepherd anointed to future kingship to stand in battle for God's family against Goliath and slay 10,000? Or, did he just attend bible class as far as we know and did he think only the pastor was really targeted and not expect that Satan or one of the members of Satan would continue to kill more of them inside Christ Jesus' House of Prayer? With those thoughts in mind going back to Eve in the Garden of Eden, did Satan love Eve to want her to receive the truth of God's goodness or did Satan promote his truth of evil?
More importantly, the image of God did not change in Jesus. Jesus' image did not decompose---become sunken-in dried-out bones attacked and eaten away at by the flies laying eggs---maggots and flesh-eaters leaving dust particles of the body sending it back to the earth because Christ Jesus is of Heaven [the Kingdom of Heaven] not of Earth, which explained why the Roman soldiers were able to take Jesus because as Jesus said his servants in heaven would not have let them take him---as we witnessed through inspired scripture how the angels protected Jesus against all things---in particular against Satan in heaven when Archangel Michael [a servant of the Lord] kicked Satan out of Heaven [The will of God for Jesus to die to save us, was done; "Thy will be done"; Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.", St. John 18:36, KJV]. His body did not shiver up wither up and die; he remained in tact [even the holes of piercing remained in tact] and rose up on the third day---resurrection day for us all, for Christ Jesus of Heaven came down to save us. You know many times in life it is your face---sometimes hidden by the veil that Christ made for all things that were made were made of Christ, that speaks to the world of peoples, telling the world how you are truly in wellness---in health, and in wealth when you are distressed, worried, in a state of delusion, possessed, in fear, in poverty, in captivity and nowadays, in stress but out of the mouth we speak out life and death ["Then God said, 'Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life----the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky and all the livestock, wild animals, and small animals'." Genesis 1:26, KJV]. Christ Jesus spoke life to death, resurrected and ascended to sit at the right hand of God ["Jesus saith...Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." St. Matthew 26: 64, KJV] promising eternal life to the faithful---those he saved by His blood (John 1: 1-14, KJV).
Moreover, in southwestern Georgia, I spent every year of my life in visitation at my family's farm especially summers and I spent the last 10 years personally in the wilderness witnessing the sufferings of neighboring farms---my kinsman and my own suffering years for not every year was a suffering year combatting the bad influx of fire ants, gnats, mosquitos, honey bees, wasps, ticks, fleas, weeds, and locusts-like plant-eating insects, also envy aggressively attacking---even though the greater estate---all kinsman together did progress and were blessed beyond where they were before I arrived to think of wealth more so than just to sit on the land without caring for it just to watch over it began to feel a sense of freedom and safety to develop their parcel of land and show wealth. Most people know that it is common for thieves to take property in the deep south, so many hide the the truth of what they own other than their land many times including hiding ownership of even their land from others to survive and keep thieves back. This practice of taking is still common in the deep south but with the presence of Christ---God is a mighty God, there is peace. You cannot pretend act like you are Christ if you are not and you cannot pretend to be a soldier with marching orders from God to bring the revelation of light to the Gentiles, if you do not have God's orders to do so. You must be ready when he comes! ["But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy."]
Further, the inspired scripture of Revelations written by Apostle John said, "Woe to the people of the earth" and the doctrine of Christ tells you of Satan's presence on earth going to and fro to steal, kill and destroy for Satan stands before God to complain about man to receive permission to not only tempt you unto sufferings of lost but tempt you unto sufferings of death. Most recently, a snake curled up near the southeastern cornerstone of the house that looked like an ancient snake for he was a beige with a dash of red at the top of its spine next to the head and the snake looked at the high grass and nodded its head. I had already said I did not want snake to live at the estate. I went to get my shovel and I walked by the snake not acknowledging with any change in my steps that I saw the snake. I brought down my shovel and chopped at the snake three times---right in the middle closer to the head than the tail, the spot of the red at the top of the snake's spine; right at the head, the spot of the red at the top of the snake's spine, and again at the head and as fierce as I leveled my shovel down upon the head of the snake I did not break the body completely apart to my surprise [inspired scripture said the woman would bruise the head of the snake; "Jesus cast the devils that possessed the two men at the tombs, as the devils besought him into the herd of pigs---out and the devils made the whole herd run violently into the sea" (St. Matthew 8: 28-33, KJV ["exceeding fierce devils possessed two at the tombs so that no man might pass by that way"]).
Later, either the puppies or the older dogs placed the shell of an armadillo over the spot where the snake was and my third cousin stood under the plum tree just one large step away from where the snake was and said, "How many dogs do you have?" I did not respond to him for he already knew how many dogs I had and he also knew my neighbors were trying to steal my older dogs to care for their farms---so my dogs were under attack themselves trying to stay alive from human attack because they sensed if the humans could not convince the dogs to let them steal them they would kill them for they could not stand to see me with good dogs---also, my neighbors were possessed of a envious spirit for they did not want to train pets just take them after they were raised and trained in good shape. All the puppies were on the porch huddled in a heap together as puppies under six- months-old do aware through their senses the snake was right below them at the southeast cornerstone of the house and had not entered into the high grass yet. The dogs let me lead as their mother dog---taught them in a previous lesson that it was a job for an older dog or an older human to do when snake came.
My dogs did an excellent job of keeping snakes back so I did not complain about their performance and care keeping the farmland safe for me to work. I had not seen a snake in such a long time even since many storms passed when the rain forced streams of water and snakes down from the hill behind the farmhouse. Of recent, I recalled seeing a white oak runner snake that was dark brown with rather large black squares markings along its spine when I carried an antique metal watering can to get water from one of my cousin's nearby farm after my water system faltered. I was walking along singing in spirit with my nearly five-years-old dogs and three under six-months-old pups. By the time I came out of spirit and saw in the corner of my eye---my peripheral vision that I just passed a snake stretched out to the fullness of its length and my older female dog stood in front of the snake---I saw the snakes head was bowed down and it did not move, it made me run ahead ["Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles....", St. Matthew 10: 16-19, KJV].
I jumped in my step aware I just had my watering can in my hand but it was metal if I had to use it to scare the snake away but my dogs took the lead in defense, thank God. I told my cousin whose farm I visited there was a snake on the road and he rushed to see the snake and returned saying it was a white oak runner snake that hunts rats in the ditches. On the way back one of the pups tried to kill the snake and the mother dog chastised the pup and forced the pup to stay away. I shared the story of the day we met the snake and what the older dog did to teach her young pups with my third cousin so I know he knew why the pups stayed away and huddled together in a heap on the porch as their mother taught them when the ancient snake came.
Interestingly enough, my spirit awakened me to come behind the snake for I came outside and turned to the right walking around the house to come behind the snake---being led by my the spirit so I had time to get my shovel when I faced the snake from the side as it licked out its tongue. After the snake's death I put the snake on the firepile, the snake's spirit did not stay after it burned in the fire for in a vision I saw the snake at the road to cross over. I thank God for leading me in spirit both times with the long snake I met on the way to my cousins farm and the ancient-looking snake I came up behind at the southeast cornerstone of my farmhouse, polar opposite where Faith appeared in spirit after death. Now long since ancient snake came to the southeast cornerstone Faith, my five-years-old mother dog was killed---cut across her face and put in the fire, cooked like she was a pig and I cannot help but think that the snakes lovers Satan worshippers from the neighboring farms killed her for they had a report on the news that snakes lovers advocates for snakes were rounding up snakes tagging them because people were killing snakes.
Amazing but true that they would come to my property but I do not believe they killed my dog in revenge because I killed a snake on my property especially since just a few years back they had snake hunters in the wilderness killing off the snakes especially the rattle snakes population because they said there were too many snakes in the woods the hunters could not hunt deer and even more recently warned farms that a large number of snakes had hatched from their nests so how and why did this protest against the killing of snakes come about [also, the news reported a woman was bit by a snake that hid under a pile of leaves by her house]. My third cousin told me, "She was a fine dog." This time I strongly think it was a spirit of envy---a lethal demonic spirit [one of the seven deadly sins: wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, greed, pride, sloth] coming against me. My dogs and I knew we had to be alert with both snake and man---visitors and passers by at the farm because the saying, man is the most dangerous animal in the forest still held true even more so when ruled by the spirit of Satan.
In closing, the rhema word coming down through the spirit to reveal light are from hearing: "baptize" and from seeing the writing: "PERSONALLY SERVE DAVID" (St. Matthew 28: 19, KJV ["Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost:..."]). Our holy inspired scripture tells us Jesus said to baptize and that Jesus, our Lord and Savior came to us through the geneaology of David, who came out of Judah for the scepter remains in Judah, who came out of Israel who was Jacob, who came out of Isaac, who came from Abraham---a chosen line to serve God as holy priests. Let us follow Jesus---share in the royal priesthood to receive the gift of eternal life:
"And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying,
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him,
What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said,
Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour
as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and
thou shalt live." (St. Luke 10: 25-28, KJV).
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
