Friday, April 29, 2016

Poll: 67% of Russians hope for God’s help - TRUNEWS

GodPoll: 67% of Russians hope for God’s help 

TURNEWS 04.28.16

  


Russians have begun to hope for God’s help, and/or have begun to speak about the predestination of people’s fate by God, twice as often in the past 25 years, sociologists said, citing a poll conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM).

The poll, which surveyed 1,600 people living in 130 populated areas, of 46 regions of Russia, was conducted on April 23-24.

Sixty-seven percent of the respondents said they hope for God’s help in their daily life to a certain extent, which is a 18 percent increase from 1991 (49 percent).

Fourteen percent of the respondents (against 21 percent in 1991) said they do not believe in God, and 11 percent said they do not hope for God’s help. Three percent of the respondents answered differently and 5 percent were undecided.

As compared to 1991, Russians now believe more in phenomena associated with religion. Fifty percent of the respondents said they believe in religious miracles, which is a 18 percent increase from 1991 (32 percent). Forty-six percent of the respondents (against 33 percent 25 years ago) are confident that there is life after death. Forty percent believe in the devil and hell (against 25 percent and 24 percent in 1991).

Responding to a question as to whether human life is predestined by higher forces, 48 percent of the respondents said that it is (against 25 percent in 1991).

Forty-five percent of the respondents surveyed in 1991, said that human life does not depend on God’s plan, and now, only 26 percent of the respondents said so. Eighteen percent of the respondents said they equally disagree, and agree, with the allegation that human life is predestined by God.

Speaking about whether anti-religious works should be banned at the legislative level, 58 percent of the respondents answered positively. This indicator has not changed since 1991 (58 percent). Twenty-five percent of the respondents spoke against such a ban, and 17 percent were undecided.

“NOT ONE CHURCH IS EMPTY”

The rise of religious sentiment among citizens has been noticed, particularly by the Russian Orthodox Church. The number of parishioners is growing not just quantitatively, but qualitatively, the head of the press service of the Patriarch Alexander Volkov told RBTH.

“We experienced the first wave of religiosity just after the Soviet period, when crowds of people went to the church, but it was not always a conscious effort,” said Volkov. “Now people are doing it with more forethought.”

The church has taken notice and over the past five years, Moscow has significantly increased the number of parishes – from 894 in 2012 to 1,110 in 2015. But this is not enough according to Volkov.




Religion in Russia: What regions believe in Christ, Allah and Buddha? By Natalia Mikhaylenko, special to RBTH

“Now we understand that we need many more churches,” he said. “Not one of the constructed temples is empty. All are full or are even overcrowded.”

All photos credit to Yekaterina Sinelschikova, RBTH

Read the original article on RBTH from April 28, 2016

When Is The Rapture? (Day 3) - Michael Snyder on The Jim Bakker Show


Watch here: When Is The Rapture? (Day 3) - Michael Snyder on The Jim Bakker Show











Michael Snyder
Jim Bakker Show 2016 | Show# 2985 | Aired on April 28, 2016

Ephesians, II Timothy, John, Matthew, Revelation
Jim Bakker Show © 2016 • Morningside Studios

Watch: How the Palestinian People Were 'Invented' - RON CANTOR/MESSIAH'S MANDATE


Watch: How the Palestinian People Were 'Invented'


In the 2012 U.S. presidential race, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got into trouble when he said that the Palestinian people were invented.
We live in a day and age where honest history submits to revisionism, so as not to hurt people's feelings. While we don't seek to intentionally hurt anyone, as Israelis, we feel it is urgent that the world knows the truth. In this three-part series, you will be equipped to answer the lies perpetrated by the enemies of Israel.
Stay tuned for part three of the video. 
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The U.S. Economy Officially Joins The Global Economic Slowdown – 1st Quarter GDP Comes In At 0.5% - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Slow Down - Public Domain

Posted: 28 Apr 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Even the government is admitting that the U.S. economy is slowing down.  On Thursday, we learned that U.S. GDP grew at just a 0.5 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2016.  This was lower than analysts were anticipating, and it marks the third time in a row that the GDP number has declined compared to the previous quarter.  In other words, GDP growth has been declining for close to a year now, and this lines up perfectly with what I have been saying about how the second half of last year was a turning point that plunged us into the early chapters of a brand new economic crisis.  

And as you will see below, the official GDP number is highly manipulated, and the way that it is calculated has been changed numerous times over the years.  So the bad number that is being reported by the government is actually the best case scenario.

Of course many of the “experts” being quoted by the mainstream media are saying that this is just a temporary blip and that good times for the U.S. economy are right around the corner.  For instance, check out this quote from Reuters
“The economy essentially stalled in the first quarter, but that doesn’t mean it is faltering,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “Some of the restraints to growth are dissipating. Growth is likely to accelerate going forward.”
We have been told this same story for years, but the “acceleration” has never materialized.  In fact, Barack Obama is poised to become the only president in U.S. history to never have a single year when the economy grew by more than 3 percent during his presidency.

That is a statistic that is hard to believe, but it is true.

In addition, Louis Woodhill has pointed out that the average rate of U.S. economic growth during the Obama years will be the fourth worst in recorded history…
Assuming 2.67% RGDP growth for 2016, Obama will leave office having produced an average of 1.55% growth. This would place his presidency fourth from the bottom of the list of 39*, above only those of Herbert Hoover (-5.65%), Andrew Johnson (-0.70%) and Theodore Roosevelt (1.41%)
So does anyone out there still believe that there has been an “Obama recovery”?

We also need to add another layer to our analysis.  By now, everyone should realize that the official GDP number is highly manipulated, and the way that GDP is calculated has been changed many, many times over the years.

For example, here is Peter Schiff commenting on changes that were made in 2013
The latest example of this was revealed earlier this week when the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced new methods of calculating Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that will immediately make the economy “bigger’ than it used to be. The changes focus heavily on how money spent on research and development (R&D) and the production of “intangible” assets like movies, music, and television programs will be accounted for. Declaring such expenditures to be “investments” will immediately increase U.S. GDP by about three percent. Such an upgrade would immediately increase the theoretic size of the U.S economy and may well lead to the perception of faster growth. In reality these smoke and mirror alterations are no different from changes made to the inflation and unemployment yardsticks that for years have convinced Americans that the economy is better than it actually is.
And the following originally comes from a Bloomberg article which discussed changes that were made in 2015
The way some parts of U.S. gross domestic product are calculated are about to change in the wake of the debate over persistently depressed first-quarter growth.
In a blog post published Friday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis listed a series of alterations it will make in seasonally adjusting data used to calculate economic growth. The changes will be implemented with the release of the initial second-quarter GDP estimate on July 30, the BEA said.
One of the changes that was made last year was intended to artificially boost GDP growth numbers for the first quarter of each year.

So without that artificial boost, what would the real number for the first quarter of 2016 look like?

John Williams of shadowstats.com tracks what the official government numbers would be if honest numbers were actually being used, and according to him U.S. GDP growth has been continuously negative since 2005.

But we certainly can’t have the press report those sorts of things.  If that were the case, then everyone would be talking about the “economic depression” that never seems to end.

Unfortunately, the truth is that we are in the midst of a long-term economic decline, and we can see evidence of this all around us.  For example, on Thursday we also learned that the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen once again, and it is now hovering just 0.1 percent above the lowest level ever recorded in American history…
After gains in the second half of 2015, the homeownership rate fell to just 63.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, in the first quarter of this year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Homeownership hit a high of 69.4 percent in 2004, during one of the biggest housing booms in history. That was also when mortgage lending was arguably at its loosest level in history. The homeownership rate is now just one-tenth of 1 basis point higher than its all-time low in the second quarter of 2015.
For many more numbers that show that the U.S. economy has continued to decline, please see the following articles that I authored earlier this month…

#1 “Economy In Decline: Apple Reports Massive Revenue Decline As iPhone Sales Plummet Dramatically
#2 “In 1 Out Of Every 5 American Families, Nobody Has A Job
#3 “Stories Of Despair From The Forgotten People That The U.S. Economy Has Left Behind
#4 “47 Percent Of Americans Cannot Even Come Up With $400 To Cover An Emergency Room Visit
#5 “Corporations Are Defaulting On Their Debts Like It’s 2008 All Over Again

Now that U.S. GDP growth has been steadily dropping for three quarters in a row, hopefully people will wake up and begin to realize what is happening.

We are entering very hard times, so now is not the time to go out and buy fancy new toys or to go into lots of debt.

Rather, this is a time to tighten our belts, batten down the hatches and prepare for rough seas ahead.

Sadly, most people continue to have blind faith that our politicians and the central bankers will be able to perform some kind of miracle to save us from what is coming.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

The Fundamental Flaw in the Two-State Solution - Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

The Fundamental Flaw in the Two-State Solution

Thursday, April 28, 2016 |  Tsvi Sadan  ISRAEL TODAY
The Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has adopted a document concerning "occupied Palestine." It was drafted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan. 
UNESCO's anti-Israel bias is so severe that Jerusalem does not grant visas to representatives of this organization. This latest document is further evidence of why, as it "deeply regrets," "deeply deplores" and "strongly condemns" the "Occupying Power" exercising sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem.
To justify such a misnomer as Israel's "occupation" of the Temple Mount, UNESCO has adopted the Muslim narrative that systematically erases any piece of evidence proving the Jewish bond to the Temple Mount and to the Land of Israel as a whole. 
In fact, throughout the document, the "Temple Mount" is not mentioned once. As if the Jewish name for this holy place were mere fiction, the document refers to it only as "Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif." Even the Western Wall has been made a victim of UNESCO's revisionism and called only by its Muslim name, "Al-Buraq Plaza."
Concealing the fact that the Jewish Temple existed for hundreds of years in Jerusalem goes far beyond the demand to create a Palestinian state in the "occupied territories." Indeed, it goes without saying that if the holiest Jewish site is under "occupation," then Israel is nothing but a colonial power, and not only in Jerusalem, but in the whole of the Holy Land. 
If the Temple Mount is not a Jewish site, how could one say that Jews have the right to live in places like Tel Aviv, which only loosely, if at all, have Jewish religious significance? It follows that if Israel occupies the Temple Mount, it also occupies Tel Aviv. 
The recent apology by British Labor MP Maz Shah for his 2014 tweet suggesting that Israeli Jews be transferred to America is but the latest example of how this line of reasoning brings millions to the conclusion that Israel is at best a non-sustainable Western colony. 
Therefore, the two-state solution can only be a half-house, a temporary solution leading to the final one in which Israel ceases to exist.
The danger in validating the Muslim/Palestinian narrative has been clear ever since Israel gained control over the Temple Mount in 1967. 
One of Israel's most respected poets and columnists, Nathan Alterman, in 1970 harshly criticized Labor Party members for beginning to sympathize with the idea of a "Palestinian people." Alterman astutely observed:
"By adopting this factitious notion we are turning the beehive over our right to exist in this land… At the moment we accept the national Palestinian fiction, from that moment Zionism as a whole becomes a matter of robbing a country from the hands of an existing people, and to the extent that we help root this idea in the world and in our own innerconsciousness, we are shaking the historical and human foundation of Zionism, thus placing it only on our bayonets.
"…If indeed we acknowledge the existence of a Palestinian Arab nation, then not only the 'occupied territories' are Arab territories upon which we shed our blood until the inevitable withdrawal, but also the state of Israel is an Arab territory… If there is an Arab nation who is fighting for its country, then our protests lose their meaning. International law and morality deem terror illegal as long as we say it is a tool in the hands of the Arab countries against us. But from the moment it becomes the weapon of the Palestinian people … who are fighting for their national existence, none of the pejoratives in which we describe their bloody actions would help us."
Israel rightly condemns UNESCO's attempt to erase the Jewish (biblical) history of the Temple mount. This protest, however, rings hollow when, in the name of realpolitik, Israel itself severely restricts the Jewish presence on the Mount and openly commits itself to the two-state solution. 
Israel's readiness to hand over the Temple Mount to the Palestinians is seen by the world as evidence of a state that places no value in its own historical heritage, and therefore has little right to exist.
It is time for Israelis to realize that by demoting the Temple Mount to a piece of real estate, they are bolstering UNESCO's efforts to prove that Israel is a colonial power that has no right to exist in the Promised Land.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016

UN Rejects Israel's Claim to the Golan Heights as Top Rabbis Await the Messiah's Imminent Arrival - MICHAEL SNYDER CHARISMA NEWS

Asking Israel to give the Golan Heights back to Syria is kind of like asking the United States to give Texas back to Mexico.

UN Rejects Israel's Claim to the Golan Heights as Top Rabbis Await the Messiah's Imminent Arrival



Asking Israel to give the Golan Heights back to Syria is kind of like asking the United States to give Texas back to Mexico. (Courtesy)
The U.N. Security Council has unanimously rejected Israel's claim to sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and this is likely to cause tensions in the Middle East to rise even higher. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boldly declared "that the Golan Heights will remain under Israel's sovereignty permanently." After close to 50 years of control over the Golan Heights, this should not have been much of a shock. But the Arab world immediately went into an uproar, and the U.N. Security Council has taken action. In a unanimous decision, the U.N. Security Council has announced that Israel's claims to the Golan Heights are "null and void and without international legal effect."
So once again, the United Nations and the nation of Israel are directly at odds with one another, because the truth is that Israel is never going to leave the Golan Heights as long as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in power. The following comes from CNN:
Israel's Prime Minister has declared that the Golan Heights will remain permanently under the country's control, during Israel's first Cabinet meeting held in the territory.
"The time has come for the international community to recognize reality, especially two basic facts," said Benjamin Netanyahu during a Cabinet meeting Sunday.
"One, whatever is beyond the border, the boundary itself will not change. Two, after 50 years, the time has come for the international community to finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain under Israel's sovereignty permanently."
Asking Israel to give the Golan Heights back to Syria is kind of like asking the United States to give Texas back to Mexico.
It just isn't going to happen.
But thanks in large part to pressure from the Islamic world, the U.N. Security Council remains bound and determined to take that strategically important sliver of land away from Israel.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council expressed "deep concern" that the Israeli government is claiming permanent sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
"Council members expressed their deep concern over recent Israeli statements about the Golan, and stressed that the status of the Golan remains unchanged," China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi, president of the 15-nation Security Council this month, told reporters after a closed-door meeting.
He added that council resolution 497 of 1981 made clear that Israel's decision at the time to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the Golan was "null and void and without international legal effect."
Council statements are adopted by consensus, which means all its members, including Israel's ally the United States, backed it.
Of course the Obama administration was definitely going to go along with this U.N. Security Council statement, because it has consistently proven to be the most anti-Israel administration in modern U.S. history.
Late last year, there was a lot of talk about a potential U.N. Security Council resolution which would have permanently divided the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem and that would have set the parameters for a Palestinian state. At that time, the Obama administration was not quite ready to pull the trigger.
However, now that the end of Obama's second term is rapidly approaching, it appears that things have changed. There has been a lot of talk in the mainstream media about how such a resolution is now "on the table," and members of Congress were so alarmed that 388 of them sent a letter to Obama urging him not to do this. The following comes from the Wall Street Journal:
Several hundred Democratic and Republican lawmakers are urging the White House not to back any resolution at the United Nations that sets parameters for Israeli-Palestinian talks, a move President Barack Obama has been considering.
In a letter to Mr. Obama, 388 members of the House, including Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, said U.S. support for a U.N. Security Council resolution would "dangerously hinder" the prospects of resuming direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
"We are deeply troubled by reports that one-sided initiatives may arise at the U.N. in the coming months concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," the letter says.
As you can see, even Nancy Pelosi is opposing Obama on this.
But will that stop him?
Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, top rabbis over in Israel are convinced that the arrival of the Messiah is imminent. Two extremely prominent figures in the Jewish faith recently got together for a very important conversation, and this made headlines all over the world.
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, Vice-President of the Rabbinical Court and the Head of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem, paid a rare visit to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky at his home in Bnei Barak. They are two of the most prominent Torah figures alive today. Conversations between such great men have enormous significance and the Hebrew-language website Kikar Shabbat recorded the dialogue between these two great rabbis.
Much of their conversation centered on expectations regarding the coming of the Messiah. As you can see, they clearly believe that it could happen at literally any time.
Rabbi Kanievsky said that troubles were to be expected. "It is the days before Messiah," he explained.
Rabbi Sternbuch agreed. "In the End of Days, those who fear God will despair and their hands will loosen from fighting God's war against the sinners, and there will be no one to rely upon except God," he said, adding, "We have to bring the Messiah."
Rabbi Kanievsky answered that the Messiah should be arriving in the very near future. He quoted the Talmud (Megillah 17b) again, saying, "In the year after shmittah the Son of David will come."
The year after the Shemitah on the Jewish calendar ends this October, so until then, messianic expectations will be running high in Israel.
But at the same time, a geopolitical drama is playing out on the world stage which may eventually result in a great war coming to the land. If the U.N. Security Council does decide to pass a resolution permanently dividing the land, that is going to cause tensions in the region to go through the roof.
In the Bible, we are told that Israel will be playing a central role in the events of the last days, and this is definitely shaping up to be the case. In a recent episode of our television show, my wife and I discussed this extensively. Even though the land of Israel is only about the size of New Jersey, and even though only a tiny fraction of the global population lives there, the attention of the rest of the planet is constantly focused on it.
Unfortunately for the United States, the Obama administration has chosen a path that is radically anti-Israel, and that is going to end up having very serious implications for all of us.
Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled "The Rapture Verdict"is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.
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Prophetic Dream: How to 'Buy' Sustaining Oil for Your Lamp - JULIE MEYER CHARISMA MAGAZINE

We must keep our oil lamps full.
We must keep our oil lamps full. (iStock photo )

Prophetic Insight, from Charisma Media
"Give me oil in my lamp, keep it burning, burning, burning; give me oil in my lamp, I pray; give me oil in my lamp, keep it burning, burning, burning; keep it burning till the break of day ..."
I had a dream.
I was awakened in a dream by a Man with jet-black hair, and He said, "Follow Me." So I got up from my bed and began to follow Him into a room filled with people. It was as if I walked right from my bedroom into another house. This Man stood in the corner of the room and gestured with His head for me to watch what was taking place in this room.
I realized, as I looked around the room, that I had stepped right into a parable. I was literally "in" Matthew 25. I was just an observer; no one seemed to know I was even there except for the Man with jet-black hair that brought me. He kept gesturing for me to keep watching.
I saw something very interesting as I began to look around the room; every person in the room had a lantern. Everyone was carrying their own lantern. Some of the lanterns were very beautiful. Some of them were very simple. Some were very old; some were shiny, almost to the point that I wanted to just look at how beautiful these lanterns were; and every person in the room had one. But what I would soon see for myself is that it is not the outside beauty that is needed but what is on the inside. For I saw very quickly that beautiful, unique and shiny lanterns are of no use when the inside is empty. For some lanterns were beautiful on the outside, and I could see they were filled to the brim of oil; and some lanterns, though beautiful and though so unique, were in much need of oil. 
This was a very interesting sight that my eyes were beholding, for everyone carried lanterns—some full of oil, some almost empty of oil.
I had stepped into a parable that I had read a thousand times. I noticed the hour become late and everyone began to sleep. Now, being in the parable, I could see that falling asleep was not the main point of this—for in this life and in our natural bodies we get tired and sleep is a part of living in this life; but the key was sleeping not with just a lamp but with a reservoir full of oil.
Suddenly, when all was still and silent and everyone was sleeping, we all heard a cry: "The Bridegroom is coming!" When you hear this cry, well, it is just time.
Now everyone in the room awoke and began to get ready very quickly. Everyone heard the cry, everyone was awakened and got up, everyone grabbed their lanterns, and everyone began to trim their lamp. Everyone had a lantern, and everyone got up to trim their own lanterns, and everyone began to prepare to go out and meet the Bridegroom. The other thing I saw was, at thispoint, everyone's lanterns were shining. Everyone had lanterns that were shining. It was not like some were shining and some were not, but everyone got up and everyone began to trim their lamps, and every lantern was shining.
In the dream, I began to look at their lamps very closely. They were very simple lanterns. Some were not as beautiful or extravagant as other lanterns in the room, but my eyes fell upon not the outside of the lanterns but the oil on the inside. For some were full, and this oil had a fragrance; these lanterns was so full that there was oil running down on the outside. I saw in a clear picture that it is not the outer shine that is the most precious, but it is that which is hidden inside. This is the place I saw the necessity of the oil itself.
As I was pondering all of this, the Man with the jet black hair that was quietly watching in the corner of the room came over to me and said, "This oil is a sign of every 'yes' that they ever said when no one was looking. This oil is a sign of all that is done in secret. All of their yeses, drop by drop, have given oil overflowing. No one can take this from them and they cannot give this away; for though many people shine, no one can sustain the shine without oil, without a secret life."
He said, "Look around the room."
Then, suddenly, this Man became very clear to me as the Lord. At first He was a visitor in the room just watching everyone, and then in an instant, He stepped into a place where I knew exactly who He was. He was there watching the whole thing, very silent, but always watching.
I saw that when the shout at the midnight hour came, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes!" that they all had eyes to perceive His coming, they all got up and took notice of His coming. They all turned their attention and began to observe His coming. "Behold," was said to everyone in the room, and everyone looked up to see Him coming. Everyone looked and perceived, and everyone trimmed their lamps.
They put in order their lamps, their "shine," their "glow."
Sustain Your 'Shine'
As they all got up and put in order their lamps, they made ready their shine; they began to prepare their shine to go out and meet the Bridegroom.
I began to look around the room, and I saw everyone with their lanterns, and everyone at this point had "shine." But very quickly the "shine," the "light" coming forth from the lanterns, began to fade in those whose lanterns had little oil.
Then suddenly the great struggle began, for many people had beautiful lanterns but they did not have oil. I saw that the key is to sustain your shine, your light. For many lanterns were lit and shining, but the key is to be able to sustain your "shine." The key to sustaining the shine is by carrying a reservoir of oil with you (within you).
I saw that everyone who took their lamps and took no oil with them had just enough oil to make their lamps burn for the present, but no bottle of oil with them to sustain their shine.
I woke up from the dream, and I knew that we are in a season to get oil. Many of us have "shine," but the key is to have that which will sustain our "shine."
Every season is the right season to get oil, that we would be able to sustain our shine. And the oil comes from the simplest of things: it is simply having a heart that says "yes," a heart that says, "I love You, and I trust You, God." It is mostly the little things that fill our vessels with oil; it is simply a heart that is not offended and that rejoices with those who rejoice.
How to 'Buy' Sustaining Oil for Your Lamp
I began to study this parable. When studying the Jewish marriage ceremony, when the bridegroom literally came for his bride, it was a custom sometimes used among the Jews that the bridegroom came, attended with his friends, late in the night, to the house of the bride, where she was waiting for him, attended with her bridesmaids; who, upon the notice given of the bridegroom's approach, were to go out with lamps in their hands, to light him into the house with ceremony.
The office of these virgins is to meet the bridegroom; they come to wait upon the bridegroom when he appears and, in the meantime, to wait for him. Their chief concern is to have lights in their hands when they attend the bridegroom, thus to do him honor and do him service.
As the parable goes, they all went out to meet Him and they took their lamps; this word "lamps" comes from the root word meaning "to shine." They took their "shine" and went out to meet the Bridegroom. Everyone could see shine at this point.
The five foolish took their "shine" and went out to meet Him. You can "shine" for a little while, even with a little oil, but the key is the ability to sustain that "shine," and that takes "oil" in your lamp. They all trimmed their lamps, they all had a flame, but this flame needs to be sustained with oil. But the wise took oil in their "vessels." They took a reservoir of oil. They took with them that which would sustain their shine.
At this point the five foolish realize they do not have that which will sustain their shine; they do not have a reservoir of oil and only have enough "shine" for the moment. "Our lamps are going out," they said. "We want what you have. We want you to give to us that which sustains your 'shine.' For the flame which sustains our shine is going out. Our shine is beginning to 'go out,' to extinguish. Our divine influence has 'gone out.' I don't know His voice anymore. I don't know what He is saying. Tell me, what is He saying?"
The foolish virgins were told to go and buy oil. That word "buy" is agorazo. It is the same word that is in Revelation 3:18: "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be dressed, that the shame of your nakedness may not appear, and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see."
It is also very similar to the other word "buy" in 1 Chronicles 21:24: "Then King David said to Ornan, "No, for I will surely acquire it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.'"
And this word means:
  • to get, acquire, buy, posses, to obtain of God originating, creating, wisdom
  • to buy
This is our season to buy oil, to purchase from the Lord that which is tried in the fire—that which costs us everything.
  • To acquire of God
  • To buy
  • To redeem
  • To obtain of God what you can never receive or get from man.
In this season, trust God is in control. Let every sting lead you straight into His heart, and buy gold and oil by trusting and being unoffended if you are overlooked, if you get thrown under the bus, when you are mistreated by your peers or when you are demoted.
In the middle of all of this, talk to Holy Spirit. Right in the middle of it all, you can redeem and acquire knowledge. You can get oil, drop by drop, filling your lamp and running over right in the middle of a hard season. You can sustain your shine. You can get oil.
Julie Meyer has spent over 15 years in Kansas City working alongside Mike Bickle to help establish the International House of Prayer. She is part of the leadership team overseeing the Global Prayer Room. She is a worship leader, songwriter, author and has also been a part of the staff at Forerunner Music Academy teaching vocal lessons and pouring into the next generation of worship leaders, singers and musicians. Julie is a popular conference speaker and singer. She is the author of two books and many CDs, and she travels internationally, ministering at churches and conferences, leading worship and sharing on revival, God's heart for raising up the house of prayer and worship. To connect with Julie, visit juliemeyerministries.com.
For the original article, visit elijahlist.com.
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