Many Christians believe that the war they are facing is happening in the world around them. However the Scripture teaches that the real battle is for hearts and minds. The weapons of this warfare are found in what we eat, how we are entertained, and what we study. Every day we are fighting to either prepare our minds for the seal of the living God or the mark of the beast.

AMEN 2021: While It Is Day

<p>Many Christians believe that the war they are facing is happening in the world around them. However the Scripture teaches that the real battle is for hearts and minds. The weapons of this warfare are found in what we eat, how we are entertained, and what we study. Every day we are fighting to either prepare our minds for the seal of the living God or the mark of the beast.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Morning Devotionals

Eric Walsh

1. The War for Your Mind

Good to see you all, and good to be a part of the gathering this weekend.

I know that many have traveled far, and over the last year and a half, we've been through a whole lot.

But I praise God that he has brought us here now and that we are able to fellowship together, worship together, encourage 1 another, and by God's grace leave here even more inclined to do his work.

I believe we are not in the end days anymore.

And so the three-part series that I will be presenting will speak to that prophetically, where we are, what it means, and how we should be preparing and helping others to prepare.

So our series is battle ready, battle ready.

And our scripture reading for our talk this morning come from Philippians 2 and verse 5.

Philippians 2 and verse 5 which says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Our title again for Today's installment, the war for your mind.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

We thank you Lord for the warnings and the instruction you give.

Lord, once again, I ask that you make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

All right, we're gonna go straight to the book of Revelation, the seventh chapter.

We're gonna get right into some prophecy.

Revelation 7 and verse 1 says, and after these things I saw 4 angels standing on the 4 corners of the earth, holding the 4 winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth nor on the sea nor on any tree.

This verse tells us that God has sentinelled 4 angels that stand and keep the full weight of sin from reaching, the full weight of the consequences of sin from reaching earth.

If these 4 angels, I believe, were not in place, the mayhem and terror we see on earth would be multiplied manyfold.

In his mercy, angels have been standing guard, holding back the weight of sin on mankind.

Revelation 7 and verse 2 says, And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.

And he cried with a loud voice to the 4 angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea.

I love this because we don't we always talk about the 3 angels but I like this story of the fifth angel.

This angel comes on and he says hold on, don't get weary, don't let go, Keep holding back the winds of strife.

You see there's something that must take place before we can let go and that is that the servants of the Most High God must be sealed in their foreheads.

Verse 3, he says, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

This is 1 of the most important passages.

Whatever it means to be sealed by God here is critical.

It exempts us from what happens when the 4 winds are released or the 4 angels release the winds.

In fact, because this is a medical conference, I'd like to jump into what it means from a more medical standpoint.

This to me relates to the importance of the part of the brain called the frontal lobe.

You see, the front part of the brain, the human brain, is 33% frontal lobe.

The next smartest animals are porpoises and chimpanzees, and their brain is only about 13% frontal lobe.

And the dog that you think is so smart, it's only 7% frontal lobe.

It is the frontal lobe of the brain where personality resides.

It is the frontal lobe of the brain, hear this, where character exists.

Why is it that the frontal lobe is where it is sealed?

Why is the seal of the living God placed there?

Because this is where your character resides.

This is also in Revelation chapter 14, where the Bible says that God writes his name in the faithful.

What does the name represent in Scripture?

So in our minds is this important place called the frontal lobe where reasoning happens, where planning happens, where long-term memory is placed, where judgment happens, where impulse is controlled.

In fact, even social, sexual behavior is all controlled in the frontal lobe, in that 33% of the brain.

Because it is directly tied to salvation.

We know this from Isaiah 1 in verse 18, where it says, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

In order for you to connect with God in the work of salvation, that means justification, sanctification.

There is a reasoning process that has to happen somewhere in the process, despite how grandiose humanity may think it is.

No matter how splendid our inventions, no matter how amazing we can design and engineer towns or come up with new medical inventions, no matter how impressed with himself man is, he must reason that he is still a moral and spiritual colossal failure.

He must reason with God that he is in need of a Savior, must understand despite his victories or his failures he is in need of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Get this, if you do not have a frontal lobe that is functioning at full capacity, if you do not have clarity of mind, you will easily miss what God wants to do for you and think you can do it for yourself.

They've already taught us that we created ourselves, that we evolved from lower beings by chance and happenstance, but if you can reason, you understand that those are statistical impossibilities.

Seek to only answer the questions the serpent posed to Eve in the garden, making man think he is a small G-O-D.

But look what the Bible says, look at what it says about this process.

Ephesians 1 and verse 13 says this, "...in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, " frontal lobe function, "...ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

In the frontal lobe, in the place where the sealing happens, it is the intersection of the Holy Spirit and humanity's ability to understand its need for God, there is a spiritual, and let me submit to you, even neurophysiological process that happens that allows us to accept God deep into our being.

It is the power of the Holy Spirit that allows for this.

This is what the Spirit of Prophecy says on this.

She says, what is the seal of the living God which is placed in the foreheads of his people?

It is a mark which angels but not human eyes can read, for the destroying angel must see the mark of redemption.

Wait a minute, The seal of God is a mark of redemption?

The seal of the living God is a statement that you have been redeemed, that you have been recaptured, that you have been Reclaimed from a world of sin?

She goes on and says, just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads, it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, watch this church, but a settling into the truth both intellectually and spiritually so that they cannot be moved.

Are you starting to get into what the seal really means?

It's not that you simply understand our doctrine intellectually.

It's not that if I gave you an MCAT type test, come on now, on our doctrine.

It's not like if and you were able to pass the test that somehow means you're saved.

The truth, it's not enough to know the truth, you must also be transformed by this truth.

You can't get this truth and stay the same way.

You've gotta settle into it intellectually, yes.

And this is the problem, listen church, some of our pulpits have become places like candy factories.

More inclined to pass out sweets than the fibrous food of the gospel.

What we believe, the 2300 day prophecy matters.

2. Playtime Is Over

Good to be with you all here in warm Palm Springs, California on this God's Holy Sabbath day.

We are going to jump right into our talk as soon as the slides are up, and we're going to really delve into some deep spiritual material this morning.

Our scripture reading will come from the book of Luke, the 17th chapter, and we're going to read verses 26 and 27.

And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.

They did eat, they drank, they married wives they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all." A message for this devotion, Sabbath morning, it's playtime is over.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word and your truth.

I ask now Lord in a special way that you just make me a nail on the wall.

Hang a portrait of Christ Jesus on that nail Lord for I need not be seen.

We want to hear a word from you and from your throne room.

Lord pour out your Holy Spirit in double portion upon this place.

I pray now Lord that you bind the devil, cast far away his minions.

Father God, put as sentinels around us now, your holy angels.

All right, we're gonna go to the book of Exodus, the 32nd division.

I'm gonna start at verse 1, Exodus chapter 32, starting at verse 1.

The Bible says, and when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us gods, we shall go before us.

As for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt we what not what is become of him The children of Israel had seen mighty miracles, 10 incredible plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and when Moses steps away for a moment they begin to panic and worry as to what is going on.

They don't know what's happened to Moses and unfortunately they have connected Moses with their salvation in place of connecting Jehovah with their salvation.

So they are quick to make a fatal mistake.

Verse 2 says, and Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.

You see they had left Egypt with a spoil.

Many of the Egyptians just gave them riches as they left Egypt.

Many of the Egyptians joined them, jumped on the bandwagon when they saw that the God of Israel had won the battle.

And so there here they are now a mixed multitude still with the adorning of Egypt carrying the gold of Egypt and what did they do with what they were blessed with?

The Bible says in verse 3, And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and they brought them unto Aaron.

They took the earrings off, they bring it to Aaron.

The Bible says he received them in his hand, and he fashioned it with a graving tool.

After he had made it a molten calf, so he takes it, he melts it down.

I don't want you to underestimate the effort that it takes to do what Aaron does.

He has to take all the earrings, form them into a golden calf.

Maybe this is a skill Aaron learned in Egypt.

What's scary is that at the end of that verse, Aaron says, the people say, "'These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'" They get to a place, and this is the crux of what we're going to talk about today, What they begin to do is they begin to overlay the Egyptian way of thinking, trying to bring into that Jehovah.

They try and give credit to pagan gods for what the God of heaven has done, and they try and blend the 2 into 1 thing.

See they were used to the gods of Egypt, Osiris, Isis, and Horus.

This is why the last plague falls on the firstborn.

It falls on the firstborn because Pharaoh's firstborn was also to be divine.

They get the concept to put a golden calf together from the Egyptian concept of an apis.

This was the calf or the bull god that was supposedly responsible for all creation.

And so what they were trying to do, I don't want you to miss this, is to blend the idea of the creator God Jehovah and blend that idea with the pagan ideas that surrounded them.

They wanted to come up with a new system of worship that blended the corrupt with the holy.

I submit to you as we're gonna talk about today, folk are still making golden calves.

Verse 5, and when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it.

And Aaron made proclamation and said, "'Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.'" Not only did he build it, he declared a feast to it.

This is where their appetites get involved and sensuality begins to get involved.

They set up a party as it were and the Bible says in verse 6 of Exodus chapter 32, the Bible says, and they rose up early on the morrow.

They got up early the next day, offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the Bible says, and the people sat down to eat and to drink.

And my Bible tells me that they rose up to play.

Ah church, I came to tell you today that playtime is over.

The time for playing around with the things of God, of blending the profane with the holy, that time is done.

The Hebrew word for play there is the word sakhach.

It means to play or to fool around, but it also carries the connotation as if 1 is mocking someone else.

I want to submit to you that we live in a world where there is a blending now of the holy and the profane and the world and even in the church, folk have risen up to play.

You see, because there are many modern golden calves.

In fact, in the Bible in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 3 through 4, it says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

But after their own loss shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth." And look at what the Bible says, they will be turned unto fables.

It was a fable that a calf that Aaron was able to make with the earrings that they were wearing was the 1 who delivered them from Egypt.

And look how quickly the host of Israel begins to believe this lie.

I want to submit to you that as the golden calves are created now in the end times, the same way we will see that there will be many who quickly believe the fables of our time.

Well 1 of those fables is evolution itself.

This is a completely accepted way of thinking.

In fact, if you go back to, I think that's 1995, an article there where Pope John Paul II acknowledges the theory of evolution, the article writer says, ignoring conflicts with biblical texts.

You see, you can't be an evolutionist and believe the Bible at the same time.

It is a fable, it is a modern golden calf.

In fact, if you really step back and look at evolution, its role, its job is to bring man down, bring God down to the level of man.

Because ultimately it is chance that created us and not a divine God.

And here's the problem with evolution and if you you've ever followed my testimony you know that when the Los Angeles Times wrote an editorial piece on me they said that there are 2 reasons Dr.

Eric Walsh should never hold a scientific position in the United States of America.

The first reason they said is because he does not believe the theory of evolution.

They say by default that should disqualify him from holding any scientific position in the United States of America.

The LA Times, second largest newspaper in the United States.

The other reason they said I should never hold a scientific position is because in 1 of my sermons I said I do not want my children to wish upon a star, I want them to pray to the Living God.

And in Southern California, Mickey and Minnie are royalty, you can't mess with them.

I want to submit to you that the formation of these ideologic golden calves, because here's the problem I have with what Pope John Paul II did and thinks.

The problem is if God is lying to us in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, if he's not telling us the truth about how the world began and how the world was created, how can we believe God in John 3 and verse 16 when he says he can recreate a man and redeem a man?

So much so that now the modern golden calves, this is a great book.

It's dangerous to believe this a woman wrote a book, and I don't theologically agree with everything she says, but she basically says, listen, it's dangerous to be a Christian in America now.

That in fact, as we, you know, see more and more infighting in the church, we better understand that they're coming from us from the outside as well.

There is a lack of respect, and Bill Maher, who's a host of a show on HBO, he made that documentary called Religious.

And religious is obviously a combination of the words religion and ridiculous.

And he literally brags that he converts people from being believers to atheism.

3. Battle Ready

Glad to be here for our last session and praise God for what he has done.

I know I've been blessed by many of the presentations and glad I made the trip from the New England area all the way here to warm and sunny Palm Springs.

I'm just waiting for the slides to come up on the screen here.

And then we are going to, we're gonna go into a pretty heavy subject today.

The title of our message today is Battle Ready.

And our scripture reading is taken from Jeremiah chapter 12.

The Bible says, If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?

And if in the land of peace wherein thou trustest they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?

If in the land of peace they wearied you, how will you do when the Jordan swells?

Our message, this final presentation is entitled, Battle Ready.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word.

And once again, Lord, I ask that you just make me a nail on the wall, rusty, Lord, and seemingly useless.

Father God, upon that nail we ask that you hang a portrait of Christ Jesus.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

All right, so we're gonna jump back to the book of Exodus.

We're gonna continue in our story from yesterday, Exodus chapter 32 and verse 7.

The Bible says, and the Lord said unto Moses, go get thee down for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.

Now you remember Moses is up in the mountain, in fact he's having a kind of an interlude, an exchange with God.

He's receiving the 10 Commandments written by the finger of God.

While he is absent during this time, the children of Israel have persuaded Aaron, who we learned yesterday the Spirit of Prophecy says was pliant, and he participated in their sin when God realizes, and God knew what was happening of course, but when he goes to tell Moses what's going on he says, listen, your people have corrupted themselves.

That is the word God used, they've corrupted themselves.

He says in verse 8, Exodus 32 verse 8, God says they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.

They have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed thereunto and said these be thy gods O Israel which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." God says they turned quickly out of the way.

It didn't take much, it didn't take long, Moses.

Look how fast they reverted to the way they were before.

And it's as if God is showing us something here.

If we use this as type to the antitype of today, what you find is that it won't take much.

And where we think folk are standing strong and we have trust and hope in whole sections of our denomination.

The Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people and that stiff-necked means that they won't turn in the direction of right.

Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation." So I love what God does here and you might think that God is speaking to Moses that this is what should happen.

He says listen I'm upset I'm gonna wipe them all out and Moses I'm gonna make a great nation out of just you.

He's testing Moses to see if Moses is going to be merciful, if Moses is going to stand in the gap for his people because the rest of the work that Moses is going to have to do for The next 40 years will require him to prefer his own destruction rather than the destruction of God's people This is a it's a turning point in Moses's ministry that's why God gives him this test and he says, listen, I'm gonna destroy them all.

Now there are other people, God would have said this and they'd have said, listen, Lord, light them up.

Light them up, Lord, I'll happily, I'll be the new Abraham.

But instead, the Bible says that Moses besought the Lord as God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against your people, which you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand." He said, wait a minute, can you be that angry?

It's your people and it's almost inferred here, God, didn't you know what they were like?

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Morning Devotionals

1. The War for Your Mind

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1. The War for Your Mind

1h 5m

2. Playtime Is Over

1h 10m

3. Battle Ready

1h 13m

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