The Powerful Furtherance of the Gospel [podcast]
“The Chief Obstacle
to Heaven-Sent Revival”
O.S. Hawkins
In order for Satan to prosper he needs believers to withhold essential funds from the advance of the Gospel of Jesus and care of the souls Christ has already saved (Haggai 1; 1 Corinthians 9:1-14; Galatians 6:6, etc.). Supporting the Great Commission Jesus gave to us is essential, otherwise we could be wasting the resources He gives us (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15).
“The principal hindrance to the advancement of the kingdom of God is greed. It is the chief obstacle to heaven-sent revival. It seems that when the back of greed is broken, the human spirit soars into regions of unselfishness. I believe that it is safe to say there can be no continuous revival without ‘hilarious’ giving. And I fear no contradiction: wherever there is ‘hilarious’ giving there will soon be revival!” — O.S. Hawkins, pastor
It is God’s people who are the only people who have the potential to change this nation or any nation (2 Chron. 7:14). The enemy is wreaking havoc on this nation due to the over-spending by believers who don’t freely give of their resources to the LORD’s work because they are ‘mortgaged to the hilt,’ rooted and grounded in this fleeting world. Those who call Jesus their LORD today are grossly lacking in the daily cross He taught (Matthew 16:24-25; Luke 9:23-24). Their monies are going to the world and their hearts are following their dollars as they become more and more worldly and backslidden (Matt. 6:21). Jesus help us! Deliver us LORD!
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” John 12:24-25
Perhaps our giving should reflect the “firstfruits” biblical truth where we give the very first portion of that which we are blessed to bring in. That too rigid and disciplined? Well, we didn’t think twice about being disciplined when we called to sign up for a year’s contract with the cable TV or satellite company, did we? Why is being disciplined in our approach to the LORD and His work somehow “legalistic” or “rigid”? Could it be because our hearts are rebellious and while we call ourselves saved, there is little evidence/fruit to prove such and yet much proof to establish that we love this present, sin-filled world and are not losing our own lives in it to gain them eternally?
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” 1 John 2:15-17
If we merely check or do inventory on our check register or bank statement, we will see exactly where our hearts are. We are fooling no one except ourselves:
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21
The past and present priorities of our hearts are clearly seen in where we have and are choosing to put our monies.
Giving the first portion of our increase to the LORD was part of faithful Abraham’s walk with the LORD and that was long before the law of Moses (Heb. 7:6-9). Perhaps it is the basic rule of measure concerning how those who know the LORD should give.
Who could the first part of “all” our income belong to?
The “firstfruits” of all our increase could belong to the LORD who gave us life and the ability to earn money. We will give account to Him concerning how we stewarded each penny. The children of Israel were told that the first tenth part of everything they receive was not theirs, it was God’s (Lev. 27:30). The LORD had it earmarked for a special purpose and promised to bless them as they obeyed Him in giving that first portion (Prov. 3:9-10).
In keeping in mind that “God loveth a cheerful giver,” and so we should give from our hearts, what part of our fruits/earnings should go to the work of the Gospel?
“Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the FIRSTfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Proverbs 3:9-10
One thing is for sure – we are choosing to spend that first portion of the monies we receive on something and someone. Who is that? Who holds the importance in our lives?
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 8 And God isable to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: 9 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. 10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) 11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
It is important to honor the LORD Himself in giving to His work up front – before any other bill, etc. is paid out. This way we truly put Him first and honor Him instead of dishonoring Him by waiting till we ‘get around to it.’
God has always ordained that the free will love offerings of His people sustain those who accomplish His work in the earth on a full-time basis (Lev. 27:30-32; Deut. 14:22-28; Neh. 10:38, 1 Cor. 9:1-14; 1 Tim. 5:17-18, etc.). In Israel the tenth part and offerings were given to the Levitical tribe/priesthood, one of the twelve tribes. This tribe was specifically set apart by the LORD to minister full-time before Him and to His people. The same truth continues under the New Testament (Acts 4:35-37; 6:4). The LORD has set apart certain men for His ministry and they are to be the recipients of at least part of the love offerings we give (1 Cor. 9; Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 5:17-18, etc.). God says “For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.” (1 Cor. 9:9) Several times in this passage, the apostle Paul draws upon the Levites and the Law and its structure of giving and the purposes we give, which is to provide for those called-out to serve the LORD. Read 1 Corinthians 9:1-14.
This great apostle of Jesus actually draws from the Levitical priesthood model and how they were to be supported financially by God’s people. So, such a principle is carried forward and authenticated under the New Covenant and that can’t be denied as one honestly reads this passage. 1 Corinthians 9:1-14.
This is what the LORD accused Israel of doing – stealing what belonged to His work (Mal. 3:8-11).
God’s people backslid because they ceased giving back to Him the first portion of their increase! This is the way we thank the LORD for His provision. As our LORD Jesus says they would, their hearts followed their monies back into the world where they were now spending it.
When we give to the LORD as He prescribed, we can live with clear conscience and in the beauty of His holy fear:
Shouldn’t the first part of our increase be considered the mere starting point of what our giving should be? Someone may argue that the tithe is not a New Testament doctrine. True, and yet giving is and we are called to give all, not just some (Luke 14:33). Can we agree that the first 10% could be observed as merely elementary giving (if one chooses to view it that way)? Doesn’t the LORD own everything (100%)? (Ps. 24:1) Doesn’t it all belong to Him? As we mature in our relationship with the LORD our giving will grow and we will be freely giving to those in need and those who labor before the LORD to teach, equip, and to build up His saints and reach the lost.
The way to break off the curse of greed (hoarding) is by giving God what is rightfully His. Is it time to bring forth fruit meet for repentance (do actions and works consistent with a changed heart and inward conformity to the mind/Word of God)? If you are ready to change your ways and begin giving as the LORD gave His all for you, you may wish to get your checkbook out and write a check to the ministry(ies) you are connected with that are fulfilling God’s will according to His Word and in the power of His Spirit (Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 5:17).
Since when is feeding Christ’s flock the only un-paid calling on the earth? Is that God’s will? No. 1 Corinthians 9:1-14
The LORD promises to bless those who obey Him in giving of their finances to His work (Prov. 3:9-10; Mal. 3:10-11, etc.).
“Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the FIRSTfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Proverbs 3:9-10
The following prayer is perhaps the single most immediately important prayer believers should pray in earnest as we align our lives in obedience to the LORD.
PRAYER: LORD Jesus, first and foremost, I this moment rend my heart to You. Father, into Your holy hands I commend and submit my spirit. Please forgive me for not obeying You by obediently giving my life, my heart, and free-will offerings of all the monetary blessings You alone have blessed me with. Forgive me for the insensitivity to You and to those whom you have set apart to study and minister Your Word to me and pray and watch for my soul (Matt. 10:42, 24:40,45; Heb. 13:7, 17). I this moment return to You and renounce this disobedience and will heretofore (from here forward) give You generously the first portion of everything You choose to bless me with, and encourage others to obey You in the same. I will gladly give of what You allow to come into my hands because every good and perfect gift is form You alone. My giving will be from a cheerful heart into Your glorious work. I will freely give You the firstfruits of the work of my hands. Thank You LORD Jesus for those men of God whom you have blessed me to receive Your Word through and who are praying and working for my spiritual maturity while watching for my soul! Please bless them abundantly in every way LORD so that the influence and power of Your truth can bless more and more people in this last hour! Use me to bless them financially so that they can concern themselves only with doing Your work during this late hour of great apostasy! I love You my LORD Jesus. Amen.
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Apostasy
The Book of Jude Narrated [podcast]

The Book of Jude:
Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: 2 mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
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Abiding
The Song of Moses: God’s Favor upon His People [podcast]

“And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.” Deuteronomy 31:30
Everything we read of the children of Israel was pointing to Christ and to His perfect salvation He would later come and accomplish and bestow upon His beloved people, the body of Christ which is “the Israel of God.” (Galatians 6:16) And so this song is written to us (Romans 15:4; Corinthians 10:11).
At the end of his days, at the end of the 5 books he penned, God gives us through Moses a summation of His salvation work among His beloved people.
“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; 14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.” Deuteronomy 32:10-14
“32:10-14 The birth and childhood of the nation of Israel are described in verse 10. After the Exodus from Egypt, God guided, instructed, and preserved His people with the love of a mother eagle (v. 11). There was no foreign god who had a part in Israel’s preservation. Why then should the nation turn to idolatry and ascribe the goodness of Jehovah to another? Beginning in verse 13, the song is prophetic. He brought them into the blessings of the Promised Land.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
“Deuteronomy 32:10
a [He found him in a desert land …] The sevenfold preservation of Israel:
1. God found (literally, sustained) him in the wilderness (Deu_32:10).
2. He led him around (Deu_32:10-12).
3. He instructed him (Deu_32:10).
4. He kept him as the apple (pupil) of His eye.
5. He preserved him from idolatry (Deu_32:12).
6. He exalted him among the nations (Deu_32:13).
7. He gave him material prosperity (Deu_32:13-14).
b [apple of his eye] Hebrew: ’iyshown (H380), the dark pupil of the eye; the hole, gate, or door of the eye (Psa_17:8; Pro_7:2)” Dake
“Deuteronomy 31:30-32:14
MOSES’ SONG: THE LORD’S FAVOR UPON ISRAEL
The song of Moses, like the fabled song of the swan, was his last and sweetest. It is probably the noblest ode in the whole compass of the Bible, and is the source from which subsequent singers derived suggestions for their noblest outbursts. The marginal references prove how deeply it dyed the national sentiment.
It excels in the names and designations of the Almighty. He is the Rock: Deu_31:4; Deu_31:15; Deu_31:18; Deu_31:30; Jehovah: Deu_31:6; Father: Deu_31:6; the Most High: Deu_31:8; God: El, the strong, Deu_31:15, etc. What a study are the names of God, scattered through the Bible! Each was coined to meet some need of the human soul. What the rocks of the desert are to its shifting sands God is amid the changes of this mortal existence.
This earlier part of the song is very tender. We are God’s portion; the apple of His eye; as young eaglets, whom the mother-bird is carefully teaching to fly, the favored recipients of God’s richest gifts, Deu_31:13, etc.” FB Meyer
Notice the descriptive language, the metaphors—how the LORD illustrates how He loves, protects, and provides for His people. In Scripture, the LORD uses imagery to communicate truth.
“Moses’ song and what our LORD reveals in this message, is such a beautiful picture of God finding us in our hopeless, miserable, and lost state. He pulls us out of the miry clay and gives us His supply of grace. He then clothes us with His righteousness, seating us in heavenly places in Christ and surrounding us with His care and protection. God’s love and goodness to us.” Karen Cochran
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will
say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my
God; in him will I trust. 3 Surely he shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome
pestilence. 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers,
and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall
be thy shield and buckler.” Psalms 91:1-4
Read Psalm 91 often so this truth permeates you. Here the LORD uses the imagery of His “winged fowl” creation (Genesis 1:21). GOD made this very creature/bird for the express purpose of showing us how much He loves us and how He comforts, cares and provides for, guides, and protects His own (Psalms 91:1).
“The Song of Moses is recorded in Deuteronomy 32 of the King James Version (KJV), spanning verses 1 through 43. It is a prophetic poem given by Moses to the children of Israel just before his death, serving as a witness and a reminder of God’s faithfulness and Israel’s potential turning away.”
Prayer: Father, please grant that I know and understand You more and more. I love You LORD. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Articles
Jesus in Every Book of the Bible

First and foremost, God’s Word was written to reveal Christ.
The Bible is said to be “The only Book where the divine Author is present every time you read it.”
He’s divinely encoded and present on every page of His Word.
“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” Luke 24:44
Every book of the Bible is about the LORD Jesus, who is the central theme, the sacred substance of all of Holy Scripture. If we miss Him, we miss everything, we miss the grand subject and revelation of God’s Word.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” John 5:39-40
This makes it clear that we can “search the scriptures,” we can know them, and yet not know the Author.
They knew the Word of God but did not know the God of the Word. They made the choice not to “come to” Jesus thorugh His Word. They made it about themselves, not Jesus.
The Bible is one Book from one divine Author. The divisions are there to help us navigator His Word. – Old and New Testaments, chapters, verses, etc.
“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Psalms 119:18
The supreme and most important “wondrous” thing we are to behold in Holy Writ, is Jesus Christ.
Amen. Jesus Christ is King of all kings, LORD of all lords.
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. 8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:7-8
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