Forgotten Keys of the Kingdom

[jesus]

Jesus' words have been abused due to the misappropriation of them. Many prophesies have either been ignored or corrupted. Jesus' coming is in no wise supposed to be a surprise. He told us all things. But beyond this, He revealed many things which cannot be deciphered without the necessary keys which have long been forgotten by today's leaders.

THE TEMPLE TAX AND OTHER THINGS

Jesus went to the temple and entered without paying the temple tax.  Peter followed close behind Jesus.  The guard stopped Peter and asked him if Jesus was in the habit of paying the temple tax.  Peter gets embarrassed by the fact that Jesus did not pay the tax which was a requirement for entering the temple.  This requirement stemmed from the tabernacle Moses had erected in the desert for the Hebrews in the Old Testament.

Peter answers in the affirmative due to his embarrassment of Jesus not paying this required tax.  When Peter enters into the temple himself, Jesus stops Peter, knowing full well what took place outside.  Not willing to leave Peter ignorant as to why He did not pay the tax, Jesus sends Peter on a mission.

But before He does this, He asks Peter a question of His own.  He asks Peter who pays the taxes in an earthly kingdom, the king’s son’s or the king’s subjects.  Peter answers that the son’s are exempt from the taxes, and only the subjects pay taxes.  Jesus tells Peter that he has answered correctly.

Jesus was making the point that He was God’s Son and was exempt from the taxes. 

But beyond this, Jesus was actually telling Peter, that this tax which was a sin tax imposed by Moses in the wilderness due to the soldiers rebellion when they had refused to go to war as God had directed them, was for sinners and not for Him.  The penalty for not paying this tax was that the person would be struck dead upon entering the temple according to God. 

If you will notice, the tax was for all those who were of age to join the military.

Jesus instructs Peter to go down to the local river and catch the first fish he sees.  He tells Peter that he will find a coin in the mouth of the fish which is the equivalent of the temple tax for two people.  Jesus further tells Peter to give it to the guard for Him and for Peter, so they won’t offend the guard.

But just what was Jesus saying when He spoke about offending the guard?  Was He trying to make peace with him?  No,  what Jesus was telling Peter, was that He did not want to leave this guard in ignorance as to whom this money was to be collected from.

Peter follows Jesus’ instructions to the letter.  He pulls out the first fish he sees.  In its mouth, he finds the money just as Jesus said he would.  What is not told the readers of this story, is that the temple guard followed Peter to the river, being curios as to why Peter had left the temple so suddenly.

This is only logical, since the whole point of this lesson, was for the benefit of the guard.  Upon seeing Peter pull the money out of the fish’s mouth, he realizes two very important things.  The first, is that the fish represents the heathen who are dead spiritually.  They are the one’s constantly concerned about money.  Jesus makes reference to the fish being the symbol for death when He speaks of His own death and compares it to the story of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish.  The fish then, represents death.

The second thing that the guard realizes, is that the money for the temple, is supposed to be gathered from the unbelievers, not from God’s children!  This was a harsh but necessary correction for the benefit of this temple guard who was a Jew, not a Roman.  It was a Jew who had to guard the Jewish temple.

Jesus’ reference to Jonah being swallowed by the fish, shows that the fish represents the spirit of death.  This is why Jesus compared His death to Jonah’s experience.  Jesus would be swallowed up by the spirit of death for three days.

Today’s usage of the fish to represent Christianity, is a very big mistake.  Unless the fish explicitly has the symbol of the cross within it, or the word Jesus inside it, what a person is actually saying in symbolic form, is that they are spiritually dead.

As Christians, we need to know these things in order to portray things more accurately.  Why remain ignorant of these keys which our Father in heaven has given us?  It is high time to awake from sleep and begin to honor God with these keys.

Another example of something that needs to be shown for what it actually represents is the incident of the widow’s mite.  One must be acutely accurate of what Jesus was telling us in His ministry.  Our very souls depend on it!  Jesus was after all, only telling us these things for our own benefit.

Contrary to popular belief, the story of the widow’s mite does not start when Jesus is watching the money being put into the treasury box outside the temple.  We must remember, that the original Greek text was continuous with no breaks and no headings as we find in today’s Bibles.

The widow’s mite story actually starts with a warning by Jesus.  Jesus warns His followers to beware of the Scribes and Pharisees who love to walk around in long robes (symbolic of authority) and love the greetings in the market place.  These are the ones according to Jesus who devour widow’s houses.

The very next thing we see in the Scriptures, is Jesus sitting opposite the temple (symbolic of Jesus being opposed to the way the building had been constructed, by robbing poor widows).  Notice that the widow puts in two copper coins.

Copper is symbolic of the flesh which always incurs judgment.  This is why all the copper utensils in the Old Testament which were used for the sacrifices, had to be sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice.  They symbolically represented positions held by Church members who needed to be washed in Jesus’ blood to be worthy to serve in God’s kingdom.

These two copper coins which the widow dropped into the treasury, were also symbolic of something else.  They were symbolic of the two witnesses needed to condemn elders of the Church.  God demanded that only by the testimonies of two witnesses could an elder be condemned.

These two copper coins were the two witnesses God needed to condemn the elders for robbing widows to pay for the building of this temple.  This poor widow had put in not only more than all of the others she had put in all she had to live on!  This is what Jesus himself declares!

Now if we study the Old Testament, we find that the responsibility of the Church is not to take the last cents a widow has to live on, but rather, to feed them daily and provide for their needs.  We find this according to Deuteronomy 12-14 where the third year tithe is commanded to be placed within one’s own city’s gates to be consumed by the widows, orphans, priests, and strangers who are visiting. 

So what we see then, is that Jesus is not commending the widow for putting more than all the others.  Jesus was actually proving his previous point that the elders of the Church were robbing widows of their houses when they were supposed to be taking care of them by using the third year tithe provisions!

This is the reason why in the next verses after this viewing of the treasury business, that Jesus tells His disciples that the temple is going to be destroyed.  It will be destroyed because according to the Jews own words, the temple was forty and six years in the building process.  So for forty six years, these elders had been robbing poor widows to construct the temple!

No wonder Jesus was so angry!  These leaders were only interested in their own pocketbooks.  They were helping no one.

The Old Testament Church had degenerated to a money making business, instead of a life giving entity!

Jesus’ words concerning all things being revealed, were not speaking of all sins being revealed as many think.  Jesus’ words were spoken about the fact that there is nothing hidden in the truth’s of Scripture which shall not be disclosed.  This is why He stated that what we heard in secret we should shout from the rooftops. 

He was speaking of revelation given by divine guidance into the Scriptures.  He told us not to fear those who could kill the body.  He told us to fear Him who could destroy both body and soul in hellfire.  This was telling us that we have the express duty to reveal the hidden truths of Scripture to those around us.

Jesus also spoke of not worrying about our physical needs.  He states that these are the things the heathen were always concerned with.  He tells us in parable form secrets which were meant to be understood with our spiritual minds.  Let me explain.

Jesus’ words are as follows; “Consider the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, and yet your Father in heaven feeds them.”  On a physical level, these words appear to say that Jesus wanted us to compare ourselves with sparrows or ravens or some other type of bird.  This however was not what Jesus was saying.  He was telling us to consider the birds (symbolic of the devil’s children), whom God graciously gives all their needs.

These devilish men, neither sow the gospel, nor reap souls for the kingdom of God.  Yet, God in heaven feeds them daily.  This is what Jesus was asking us to compare ourselves who are God’s children, too. 

Jesus continues, “Consider the lilies of the valleys.  They do not toil nor spin, and yet not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these.” 

On first glance, it appears as if Jesus is referring to the Old Testament king Solomon.  However, upon closer examination, we find that Jesus was not referring to king Solomon of the Old Testament, but was rather referring to Himself as being Solomon!

What do I mean?  To understand this, we must go back to the Old Testament promise made by God to king David concerning Solomon his son who was to build God’s temple.  God told David that his son Solomon would inherit his throne and would build God’s temple.

This was intended to be a prophecy of Jesus who would build the Church.  David however, misunderstood God’s words.  He thought God wanted him to name his next child Solomon.  David does this, thinking this is what God meant.

God sends the prophet Nathan to rename the child Jedidiah which means beloved of God.  This is the only time in Scripture where we see this occur.  God never intervenes in what a parent calls his or her child unless He does it before the child is born.

The question is why, did God do this in this case.  The reason God did this, was as a mild rebuke to David for not understanding what God had told him concerning Solomon.  David was supposed to understand that God was making reference to the Messiah.  This is who He was calling Solomon.

Now, getting back to Jesus’ words, concerning the lilies of the valley and how they are clothed without spinning or toiling.  Jesus was comparing Himself to the kings of the world.  He was telling those listening to Him, to see the difference between Himself and them. 

The kings of the world neither toil (to spread understanding of how to live righteously, the linen of the saints in Revelation is said to be their righteousness or righteous deeds done on earth), nor spin (righteous deeds of their own, in order not to appear naked at the wedding feast).  And yet not even Jesus (Solomon) was arrayed (clothed while on earth), like one of these kings of the earth.  In other words, even though He had toiled and spun for the kingdom of God while on earth, He was not clothed with the fine linens of the kings of this present earth!

In other words, God was telling us to be content with the bare necessities.  That our rewards would become evident later in His kingdom.  Our vestures in heaven will be based upon our righteous deeds done while in our earthly bodies.  We also can help others to have better vestures in heaven, by teaching them to observe righteous living!

Jesus spoke of having faith like a mustard seed.  He said that if we had faith as a mustard seed that we could say to this mountain be thou removed and it would be done.  While I find little use for moving mountains which God placed in their proper locations, I do have a need to move the mountains of Satan.  Let me explain.

Jesus was not speaking of literal mountains here.  He was speaking of governments.  Revelation speaks of the beast on seven mountains.  He is not speaking of this beast living on top of seven literal mountains.  He mentions that they are seven kings.  These kings ruled kingdoms not literal mountains. If you can tell me that these kings ruled only a single mountain, then I will agree that these Scriptures are talking about literal mountains.  Revelation 17:9-10.

If mountains represent kingdoms, then what Jesus was saying about having faith as a mustard seed to move mountains, has to do with moving or destroying Satan’s kingdoms!  The mustard seed, is not literal either.  Jesus was calling Himself the mustard seed.  He was telling us that if we have the same type of faith (understanding) that He has, we would be able to know just how to destroy Satan’s strongholds.  We need to however, be sure that we are going according to the will of God in our daily walk in order to move these evil mountains.

Jesus was indeed talking about Himself as being the mustard seed.  To prove it, we must go to the Old Testament.  Ezekiel 17:1-24.  Here we see Israel in captivity to Babylon.  God intended this to be a blessing.  However, the leader of Israel hires Egypt to come and fight against Babylon after making a covenant of peace with Babylon.  God gets upset with this. 

Israel is supposed to represent God.  How dare they act in this way and show God’s character as being deceitful.  They spoke peace while they prepared war against Babylon.  While Babylon may have been evil, it had no intentions of destroying Israel.  It fully intended by God’s hand to fulfill its end of the treaty.

God pronounces that Israel’s deceit will have to be rectified by God Himself in the future.  God promises to plant one of the top sprigs (branch, even Jesus) upon the mountain of Israel.  This was to heal the broken covenant of peace which Israel had spoken.  This paved the way for the heathen nations to be given salvation.  God would in the future, give the gospel to Babylon, or the heathen nations of the world.

He would do this, by planting Jesus in the earth!  Thus Jesus’ parable about the mustard seed which is the smallest of seeds (trust me when I tell you it is not the smallest), would grow to be the largest tree.  Jesus was talking about Himself being the mustard seed in this parable.  He was the smallest or least in God’s kingdom in the sense that He had to become sin and thus in a sense become our slave or beast of burden to bear our iniquities.

He healed the breach of the broken contract between Israel and the rest of the world.  He did this by a promise made during Israel’s captivity in Babylon.  God keeps His promises.  Israel had no right to promise peace and then break it.  They are supposed to have God’s character, not Satan’s who is a liar.

Now maybe if you look at Jesus’ words concerning having faith (understanding) as a mustard seed (Himself), you get a new understanding of Jesus’ words concerning destroying the devil’s strongholds or mountains.  If we will follow Jesus’ words and example, we will be able to destroy all of Satan’s kingdoms or strongholds.  This is what Jesus was telling His apostles.

Now you might wonder why I placed the word understanding in parenthesis for the word faith.  The reason is because the word faith does not mean to believe.  The word faith is shown in the Word of God to mean correct understanding of how things work.  There are many examples to prove this.  Let’s look at some of them.

Luke 7:2-10 tells the story of a Roman officer who asks Jesus to heal his servant who is near death.  The Jews testify of his goodness to Jesus and how he had built them a synagogue.  The first thing we see is that this man who is a foreigner has the right idea about how to treat God’s children.

Next, we see that Jesus offers to go to the man’s house and even begins to go.  I would also like you to understand that this was a Jewish slave who this Roman was asking Jesus to heal!  Romans don’t have Roman slaves.  This man loved his Jewish slave.  He valued him as he valued his own life!

This man has Godly understanding of how things are supposed to be.  Next, we see that the Roman tells Jesus not to bother coming all the way to his house.  He tells Jesus that he is not worthy to have Him come into his house.  He recognizes he is a sinner!  He instructs Jesus to merely say the word, and his servant will be healed. 

While many use this one point to show faith means to believe, this is not what Jesus declares about this man.  Jesus listens to this man’s words in totality.  The man says that he is also a man in authority.  He tells this one to go and he goes, he tells that one to come and he comes. 

This Roman knows how things work.  Jesus marvels that a Roman has more sense to know how things work than the Jews.  He pronounces a blessing on this Roman because he has shown great faith (understanding of how things work).

Another example is when the Phoenician woman cries out to Jesus even calling him the Son of David and Lord.  Jesus does not answer her.  Finally, the apostles beg Him to send her away.  Jesus tells her that He is not sent except to the lost sheep of Israel.

This is not as many believe a reference to the Nation of Israel.  It is a reference to those who are of the true children of God who make up the family of God.  These are the only ones both now and forever, for whom Jesus came.

Jesus further tells this woman that it is not fit to give the bread that belongs to the children of God to the dogs (non-believers).  Here we see that Jesus declares her and her daughter to be non believers, even though she is using proper titles for Jesus.  Jesus knew her heart.  He knew she was only using these titles because she was familiar with the terminology.

He declares her to be a dog, as well as her daughter.  They are non believers.  However, the woman tells Jesus that even the small dogs, get the crumbs that fall off the master’s plate.  Jesus recognizes her faith (understanding of how things work) and states that she had great faith (understanding of how things work).  This woman although a non believer, was still able to use common sense to move God.

What, did she all of a sudden become a believer?  If this were the case, Jesus would have been out of line calling her a dog when He knew that in a few minutes she would enter into the kingdom of God.  No, she was still what Jesus had originally called her, a dog.  However, she still was able to move God based upon her ability to use logic.

This is why Jesus says that many will say in the judgment day, that they had cast out demons in His name and worked many miracles in His name, and yet He will tell them, “Away from Me you who work iniquity.”  In other words, God will have honored His Word for the sake of His Word, but yet will condemn the evil men who spoke it. 

They will have used logical truth to do the miracles, and yet they were not true believers.  The only logical thing one can conclude is that faith does not mean to believe, because these men were able to do the miracles in God’s name, and yet were not true believers.  God acted upon their proper use of knowledge and understanding of how things worked! 

This is a terrifying truth that is virtually unknown in the Church world.  I cringe at the thought that men could be so close to the Word and yet miss the relationship between themselves and God.  What a tragedy!

There is another point I would like to bring up which concerns what happens to a man who is a non believer when he dies.  The only place Jesus explains this, is where the apostles could not cast out a demon from a young man as Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration.  Matthew 17:14-21 and Mark9:14-29.

In this event, we see that Jesus comes down and finds the Scribes and Pharisees arguing with the other apostles.  Now what do you suppose they were arguing about?  They were arguing about the validity of Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah.  They were mocking the fact that Jesus’ apostles were not able to cast out the demon from the boy in question.  This they felt proved Jesus’ ministry was false.

However, when Jesus gets His apostles alone, He explains to them why they could not cast the demon out.  He states that this kind cannot come out except by prayer and fasting.  Jesus was not stating that the apostles had not been praying or fasting.  Jesus was saying that the reason why the demon had entered into the boy was because neither he nor his father had been living godly lives.

They had neglected their prayer lives, and had neglected the third year tithing principle of taking it to their local storehouse so that the priests, widows, orphans, and strangers could eat of it and be satisfied.  God states, “Is this not the fast that I have chosen, that you feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and give rest to the weary.”  These are the principles of the third year tithe.

It was only during the third year cycle of the tithe that each household took their best 10% and left it for the poor.  The first two year tithes were for themselves.  Deuteronomy, 12-14.  This man and his son had neglected this all important fast.

I want you to notice, that this fast had nothing to do with not eating.  It merely had to do with once every three years, giving away your best for the needy.  You still had plenty to eat. 

Now I want you to notice that the father of the boy asks Jesus to help him in his understanding.  Jesus considers this a step in the right direction and heals the boy.  It is at this critical juncture that people get lost in this event.

During this event, just before the father brings the boy to Jesus, Jesus says, “Oh unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I put up with you, bring the boy to me.”  What most don’t understand is that Jesus is not talking to the father or the boy or the apostles.  He is talking to the unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees. 

Once the boy is cleansed, Jesus once again turns His attention to these unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees.  He begins to tell them, not the boy, about what happens when an unclean spirit leaves a man.  Jesus is not talking about the demon He has just cast out.  Jesus is talking about the unclean unbelieving spirit that is within these Scribes and Pharisees.

He states that when their unclean spirit leaves their body after they die, that it will go through waterless places seeking rest and will find none.  Then, it will say, “I will return to my house (body) from which I came and will find it empty (lifeless) and clean (the body only sins when occupied).

Then, this unclean spirit will take along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and the last state of that man will be worse than the first state it was in.  What Jesus is saying, is that when these unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees die, their spirits will go to a place without water and they will be tormented.

Then at the resurrection, their spirit will think that it is going back to its house or body of its own accord, but it will actually be God calling it back into the body.  Then, this wicked spirit of theirs, will receive from God its just punishment by receiving the second death sentence or the seven spirits of death, which are in contrast to the seven spirits of life contained in the sevenfold laws of God. 

The original commandments were sevenfold not ten in the original language.  They could be subdivided and that is why we call them, the 10 commandments.  Proverbs 6:16 states that there are six, yes seven, things that God hates.  These seven things are in direct opposition to the loving laws of God.  These are the seven spirits of death that Jesus is talking about which these unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees will receive at the resurrection.

This then, is what will happen to unbelievers upon their death.  They will meet the same fate as these unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees.  Thus we see that Jesus’ words had nothing to do with warning this father or son about the demon returning if they did not mend their ways.  His words were for the unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees who were leading people away from following Him.

There is a parable which Jesus speaks to the Pharisees on another occasion which is very similar to the above incident.  It is about a steward who is supposedly squandering his master’s money.  This steward is told that he is about to be dismissed.  He reasons that he is not strong enough to dig.  He reasons that he is too ashamed to beg.  He decides to call his master’s debtors and lower their debts.

The master watches as his steward lowers the debts of the people.  Afterwards, the master praises his steward for his shrewdness.  Now why in the world, would the master have done this if the steward was actually giving the master’s money away by lowering the bill which was owed to his master?

The answer, if you can receive it, is that the steward was not lowering the amount of money owed to his master.  What the steward was doing, was taking off the amount that he had been overcharging these people.  He had been overcharging these people so that he could use the extra money for himself.  Which is why it appeared, as if he had been squandering his master’s money. In reality, he had only been spending what he had been overcharging the people.

Now of course, to the people it appeared as if they were receiving a bargain.  They loved the steward afterwards.  Jesus uses this analogy against the Pharisees.  He is telling them that He is aware that they likewise have been overcharging the children of God.  He tells them to make for themselves friends with their use of unrighteous mammon, in order that when they fail (die) they (the demons of hell) will receive them into their everlasting domains (homes in hell)!

As you can see, unless you can discern who Jesus is talking too, you will be at a loss to understand His words.  This is why it is important to be very careful how you listen to Jesus’ words.  Most Christians think that the above words were spoken to the apostles.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus’ words, “And I say to you…” was the point where He pointed His finger at the Pharisees to let them know that He was speaking these things against them!  Once again I reiterate, we must be careful how we read the Word of God.  It is only through much study that we will show ourselves approved.

This is why the master in this parable was able to praise his steward for his shrewdness.  The word shrewd does not carry an intrinsic goodness about it.  It rather implies deception.  This is what the master understood about the steward.  He had been deceiving the people about the actual prices of the items in question.  This gave him extra spending money.

The Pharisees were doing likewise.  They were telling the people they owed them money for preaching the word of God.  This is not what God promised Jacob in the agreement.  God promised Jacob enough to eat, clothing and a place to stay.

This is one of the reasons why we see Peter the apostle exclaim to the man at the gate beautiful that he has no silver or gold.  All he had was enough for each day to live on.

There is a collection mentioned in the Scriptures, but it is for another Church which is poor.  The money collected by the apostles is specifically said to be used for the saints as needed.  The apostles had no salary.  Paul mentions receiving things from a Church, but these things were for his daily needs and not a salary.  He states that he has the right to charge the congregation.  However, the type of charging he is talking about is the right to eat and to stay at one of their houses while he is there to preach.

Paul was in no wise saying that he had the right to charge a salary.  He was simply acknowledging his right to be taken care of in one of the congregational houses.  With this assertion we see Jesus agree when He sends out the seventy apostles to teach, preach, and heal.

He instructs them to take along no purse, and to not collect silver or gold.  In other words, don’t take a salary.  He instructs them to find one house which is worthy, and to stay in that house eating and drinking what is set before them.  He furthermore forbids them to keep moving from house to house.

Why?  Because Jesus knows that this would make them appear as if they were only there to get what they could from the people they were supposed to be ministering too.  This would defame the gospel.  This is what has happened to many people who believe that the preachers of today are only in it for the money.  And I am not so sure that they are too far off given the extravagance of today’s preachers.  But, that is God’s decision to make.

In writing these books (I have written two others), I struggled with the subject of charging money for information which should be free to the children of God.  If I had been a television host, a radio host, or some famous person, I could have done much of this for free and gotten it out to just as wide an audience.

However, my only talent is writing.  Since my main objective was to get these truths out to as many as I could in a timely fashion, I chose to go this route.  May God grant me to use any money I receive for these books with wisdom, realizing that the money comes from my fellow believers on Jesus who is called Messiah and rightfully so.

As I write this book, I am filled with hope that somehow, some way, I will help someone who has struggled with these very issues and Scriptures.  To him or her I grant all the years of painstaking reading and study.  May God bless my efforts and let these books find their way into the hearts, minds, and souls of these individuals.  God bless you the readers and those with whom you will discuss or lead to these books.

Finally, I give thanks and praise to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.  He it is who has made these books possible.  He it is who has made my life worthwhile.  He it is who has given me all things pertaining to life and abundance. 

May He be praised forever and reap the benefit of the increased understanding that these books have provided for His children.  May He watch over and guard those who seek His face.  For His mercy endures FOREVER!

 

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Jesus Villalobos